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ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 


Mr.  George  Meredith  is  the  greatest  English  novelist  living;  he  is 
probably  the  greatest  novelist  of  our  time.  He  is  a  man  of  genius,  a 
literary  artist,  and  truly  a  great  writer.  —  The  Beacon. 


GEORGE  MEREDITH'S  NOVELS. 

TITLES. 

THE    ORDEAL   OF    R'CHARD  RHODA    FLEMING. 

FEVEREL.  BEAUCHAMP'S    CAREER. 

EVAN    HARRINGTON.  THE    EGOIST. 

HARRY   RICHMOND.  DIANA  OF  THE   CROSSWAYS. 

SANDRA    BELLONI.  THE   SHAVING    OF   SHAGPAT, 
VITTORIA.  AND    FARINA. 

ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS.  THE   TRAGIC    COMEDIANS. 


SOME     PRESS     NOTICES. 

Mr.  Meredith's  novels  are  an  intellectual  tonic.  They  are  the  great,  and  in- 
deed, we  may  say,  they  are  the  only  novels  of  any  living  author  which  deserve  to 
be  called  great.  They  will  take  the  same  high  and  permanent  rank  that  is  as- 
signed to  the  novels  of  George  Eliot  and  George  Sand.  They  are  deeper  in 
intellectual  power  than  Dickens,  while  they  have  less  of  his  dramatizations.  They 
are  an  intellectual  mine,  and  will  repay  careful  study.  —  Boston  Traveller. 

The  London  "Athenaeum''  says  of  "Diana  of  the  Crossways":  "It  is  a 
study  of  character,  and  it  is  also  a  study  of  emotion  ;  it  is  a  picture  of  fact  and  of 
the  world,  and  it  is  touched  with  generous  romance  ;  it  is  rich  in  kindly  comedy, 
and  it  abounds  in  natural  passion  ;  it  sets  forth  a  selection  of  many  human  ele- 
ments, and  it  is  joyful  and  sorrowful,  wholesome  with  laughter  and  fruitful  of  tears 
as  life  itself." 

Mr.  Meredith's  novels  certainly  have  the  qualities  which  we  marked  as  essen- 
tial to  permanent  literature.  They  can  set  before  you  pictures  of  happy  love,  or 
of  youth  and  nature  that  can  never  be  forgotten  ;  scenes  that  flash  before  your 
eyes  when  your  thoughts  are  elsewhere.  .  .  .  Whoever  reads  Mr.  Meredith  does 
not  waste  his  time.  He  is  in  good  company,  among  gentlemen  and  ladies  ; 
above  all,  in  the  company  of  a    Genius.  —  Daily  News. 

Genius  of  a  truly  original  and  spontaneous  kind  shines  in  every  one  of  these 
books;  of  fancy  there  is  only  too  much,  perhaps;  with  healthy  benevolent  sym- 
pathy they  abound;  and  if  there  exists  any  greater  master  of  his  native  tongue 
than  Mr.  Meredith,  we  have  yet  to  hear  of  the  gentleman's  name.  — St.  James's 
Gazette. 

It  was  not  until  1859,  when  he  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty-two,  that  he  pro- 
duced "  The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel,"  his  first  mature  novel,  charged  to  the 
brim  with  earnestness,  wit,  strength  of  conception.  Meredith's  stories  generally 
end  happily ;  but  this  one  is  profoundly  tragic.  I  have  read  many  of  his  chapters 
without  being  moved,  even  when  the  situation  in  itself  must  theoretically  be  ac- 
knowledged an  affecting  one.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  the  heart  which  is  not 
touched,  and  the  eyes  that  do  not  become  moist,  in  the  reading  of  the  last  portions 
of  "  Richard  Feverel "  must  be  indurated  with  a  glaze  of  indifference  which  is 
not  to  be  envied.  —  G.  P.  Lathrop,  in  Atlantic  Monthly. 


12  Volumes,  English  Edition,  uncut,  nrao.      Price,  $2.00. 

12  Volumes,  English  Edition,  half  calf.       Extra,  $30.00  the  set. 

12  Volumes,  Popular  American  Edition,  i6mo,  cloth.      Price,  $1.50. 


ROBERTS    BROTHERS,    Publishers, 

BOSTON,    MASS. 


ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 


BY 


GEORGE    MEREDITH, 


^utijor's  lEtutton. 


ROBERTS   BROTHERS, 

3,    SOMERSET    STREET, 

BOSTON. 
1891. 


6i+ 


'* 


Presswork  by  John  Wilson  and  Son, 
University  Press. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEB 
I. 
II. 
III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 
VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 


XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 


*AGE 

Across  London  Brtdgb        . .  . .  ••  •  •        1 

Through  the  Vague  to  the  Infinitely  Little  . .  9 

Old  Veuve  ..  ..  ••  ••  ..14 

The  Second  Bottle      ..  .  •  ••  . .  21 

The  London  Walk  Westward  •  •  * .  30 

Nataly  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  39 

Between  a  General  Man  of  the  World  and  a  Pro- 
fessional . .  . .  • .  . .  47 

Some  Familiar  Guests  ••  .  *  ..  58 

An  Inspection  of  Lakelands  ..  . .  ..66 

Skepsey  in  Motion        ..  ..  ..  ..  77 

Wherein  we   behold   the    Couple  Justified  of   Love 
having  Sight  of  their  Scourge    . .  . .  89 

Treats  of  the  Dumbness  possible  with  Members  of 
a  Household  having  One  Heart  ..  ..  ..99 

The  Latest  of  Mrs.  Burman 

Discloses  a  Stage  on  the  Drive  to  Paris  .. 

A  Patriot  Abroad 

Accounts  for  Skepsey's  Misconduct,  showing  how  it 

affected  Nataly 
Chiefly  upon  the  Theme  of  a  Young  Matd's  Imaginings 
Suitors  for  the  Hand  of  Nesta  Victoria 
Treats  of  Nature  and  Circumstance  and  the  Dissen- 
sion between  them  and  of  a  Satirist's   Malignity 
in  the  Direction  of  his  Country       ..  ..  164 

The  Great  Assembly  at  Lakelands  .,  ..     180 

Dartrey  Fenellan        ..  ..  ..  ..  192 

Concerns  the  Intrusion  of  Jarniman  ••  ..     208 


105 
115 
127 

135 
143 
153 


IV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  *A<JK 

XXIII.  Treats    op    the    Ladies'    Lapdog    Tasso    tor    an 

instance  of    momentous    effects   produceii  by 

very  Minor  Causes             ..            ..            ..  216 

XXIV.  Nesta's  Engagement      ..             ..             ..             ..  229 

XXV.    Nataly  in  Action  . .            ..             ..             ..  242 

XXVI.    In  which  we  see  a  Conventional  Gentleman  en- 
deavouring to  examine  a  Spectre  of  himself  253 
XXVII.    Contains  what  is  a  Small  Thing  or  a  Great,  as 

the  Soul  of  the  Chief  Actor  may  decide       ..  258 

XXVIII.    Mrs.  Marsett          ..             ..             ..             ..  266 

XXIX.    Shows  one  of  the  Shadows  of  the  World   cross- 
ing a  Virgin's  Mind          ..             ..             ..  277 

XXX.    The  Burden  upon  Nesta             . .             . .            . .  284 

XXXL    Shows  how  the  Squires  in  a  Conqueror's  Service 
have   at  Times  to  do   Knightly   Conquest  of 

themselves            . .             . .             . .             . .  295 

XXXII.     Shows  how  Temper  may  kindle   Temper  and  an 

Indignant  Woman  get  her  Weapon            • ,  306 
XXXIII.    A  Pair  of  Wooers          ..             ..             ..             ..314 

XXXIV.    Contains    Deeds    Unrelated  and  Expositions    of 

Feelings        . .             . .            . .             . .             . .  324 

XXXV.    In  which  again  we  make  use  of  the  Old  Lamps 

FOR    LIGHTING   AN   ABYSMAL    DARKNESS      .  .                  . .  334 

XXXVI.     Nesta  and  her  Father        ..             ..             ..  340 

XXXVII.    The  Mother— the  Daughter      ..            ..            ..  352 

XXXVIII.    Nataly,  Nesta,  and  Dartrey  Fenellan        ..  3(>1 

XXXIX.    A  Chapter  in  the  Shadow  of  Mrs.  Marsett       ..  372 

XL.    An  Expiation          ..             ..             ..             ..  385 

XLI.    The  Night  of  the  Great  Undelivered  Speech  ..  395 

XLIL    ThsLast 407 


ONE   OF  OUR  CONQUERORS, 


CHAPTER  L 

ACROSS   LONDON    BRIDGE. 

A  gentleman,  noteworthy  for  a  lively  countenance  and  a 
waistcoat  to  match  it,  crossing  London  Bridge  at  noon  on  a 
gusty  April  day,  was  almost  magically  detached  from  his 
conflict  with  the  gale  by  some  sly  strip  of  slipperiness, 
abounding  in  that  conduit  of  the  markets,  which  had  more 
or  less  adroitly  performed  the  trick  upon  preceding  passen- 
gers, and  now  laid  this  one  flat  amid  the  shuffle  of  feet, 
peaceful  for  the  moment  as  the  uncomplaining  who  have  gone 
to  Sabrina  beneath  the  tides.  He  was  unhurt,  quite  sound, 
merely  astonished,  he  remarked,  in  reply. to  the  inquiries  of 
the  first  kind  helper  at  his  elbow  ;  and  it  appeared  an  accept- 
able statement  of  his  condition.  He  laughed,  shook  his  coat- 
tails,  smoothed  the  back  of  his  head  raiher  thoughtfully, 
thankfully  received  his  runaway  hat,  nodded  bright  beams 
to  right  and  left,  and  making  light  of  the  muddy  stigmas 
imprinted  by  the  pavement,  he  scattered  another  shower  of 
his  nods  and  smiles  around,  to  signify  that,  as  his  good 
friends  would  wish,  he  thoroughly  felt  his  legs  and  could 
walk  unaided.  And  he  was  in  the  act  of  doing  it,  question- 
ing his  familiar  behind  the  waistcoat  amazedly,  to  tell  him 
how  such  a  misadventure  could  have  occurred  to  him  of  all 
men,  when  a  glance  below  his  chin  discomposed  his  outward 
face.  "Oh,  confound  the  fellow!"  he  said,  with  simple 
frankness,  and  was  humorously  ruffled,  having  seen  absurd 
blots  of  smutty  knuckles  distributed  over  the  maiden  waist- 
coat. 

His  outcry  was  no  more  than  the  confidential  communica* 

E 


2  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

tion  of  a  genial  spirit  with  that  distinctive  article  of  his 
attire.  At  the  same  time,  for  these  friendly  people  about 
him  to  share  the  fun  of  the  annoyance,  he  looked  hastily 
brightly  back,  seeming  with  the  contraction  of  his  brows  to 
frown,  on  the  little  land  of  observant  Samaritans;  in  the 
centre  of  whom  a  man  who  knew  himself  honourably  unclean, 
perhaps  consequently  a  bit  of  a  political  jewel,  hearing  one 
of  their  number  confounded  for  his  pains,  and  by  the  wearer 
of  a  superfine  dashing-white  waistcoat,  was  moved  to  take 
notice  of  the  total  deficiency  of  gratitude  in  this  kind  of 
gentleman's  look  and  pocket.  If  we  ask  for  nothing  for 
helping  gentlemen  to  stand  upright  on  their  legs,  and  get  it, 
we  expect  civility  into  the  bargain.  Moreover,  there  are 
reasons  in  nature  why  we  choose  to  give  sign  of  a  particular 
surliness  when  our  wealthy  superiors  would  have  us  think 
their  condescending  grins  are  cordials. 

The  gentleman's  eyes  were  lollowed  on  a  second  hurried 
downward  grimace,  the  necessitated  wrinkles  of  which  could 
be  stretched  by  malevolence  to  a  semblance  of  haughty  dis- 
gust ;  reminding  us,  through  our  readings  in  journals,  of  the 
wicked  overblown  Prince  Regent  and  his  Court,  together 
with  the  view  taken  of  honest  labour  in  the  mind  of  super- 
cilious luxury,  even  if  indebted  to  it  lreshly  for  a  trifle ;  and 
the  hoar-headed  nineteenth-century  billow  of  democratic  ire 
craved  the  word  to>  be  set  swelling. 

"  Am  I  the  fellow  you  mean,  sir?"  the  man  said. 

He  was  answered,  not  ungraciously  :  "  All  right,  my  man." 

But  the  balance  of  our  public  equanimity  is  prone  to  violent 
antic  bobbin gs  on  occasions  when,  for  example,  an  ostentatious 
garment  shall  appear  disdainful  of  our  class  and  ourself,  and 
coin  of  the  realm  has  not  usurped  command  of  one  of  the 
scales:  thus  a  fairly  pleasant  answer,  cast  in  persuasive 
features,  provoked  the  retort — 

M There  you're  wrong;  nor  wouldn't  be." 

44  What's  that?"  was  the  gentleman's  musical  inquiry. 

•*  That's  flat,  as  you  was  half  a  minute  ago,"  the  man 
rejoined. 

44  Ah,  well,  don't  be  impudent,"  the  gentleman  said,  by  way 
of  amiable  remonstrance  before  a  parting. 

44  And  none  of  your  dam  punctilio,"  said  the  man. 

Their  exchange  rattled  smartly,  without  a  direct  hostility, 
and  the  gentleman  stepped  forward. 


ACKOSS   LONDON    BRIDGE.  8 

It  was  observed  in  the  crowd,  that  after  a  few  paces  he 
put  two  fingers  on  the  back  of  his  head. 

They  might  suppose  him  to  be  condoling  with  his  recent 
mishap.  But,  in  fact,  a  thing  had  occurred  to  vex  him  more 
than  a  descent  upon  the  pavement  or  damage  to  his  waist- 
coat's whiteness :  he  abominated  the  thought  of  an  altercation 
with  a  member  of  the  mob;  he  found  that  enormous  beast 
comprehensible  only  when  it  applauded  him ;  and  besides  he 
wished  it  warmly  well ;  all  that  was  good  for  it ;  plentiful 
dinners,  country  excursions,  stout  menagerie  bars,  music,  a 
dance,  and  to  bed :  he  was  for  patting,  stroking,  petting  the 
mob,  for  tossing  it  sops,  never  for  irritating  it  to  sh»w  an 
eye-tooth,  much  less  for  causing  it  to  exhibit  the  grinders : 
and  in  endeavouring  to  get  at  the  grounds  of  his  dissension 
with  that  dirty-fisted  fellow,  the  recollection  of  the  word 
punctilio  shot  a  throb  of  pain  to  the  spot  where  his  mishap 
had  rendered  him  susceptible.  Headache  threatened— and 
to  him  of  all  men !  But  was  there  ever  such  a  word  tor 
drumming  on  a  cranium  ?  Puzzles  are  presented  to  us  now 
and  then  in  the  course  of  our  days;  and  the  smaller  they 
are  the  better  for  the  purpose,  it  would  seem ;  and  they 
come  in  rattle-boxes,  they  are  actually  children's  toys,  for 
what  they  contain,  but  not  the  less  do  they  buzz  at  our 
understandings  and  insist  that  they  break  or  we,  and,  in 
either  case,  to  show  a  mere  foolish  idle  rattle  in  hollo wness. 
Or  does  this  happen  to  us  only  after  a  fall? 

He  tried  a  suspension  of  his  mental  efforts,  and  the  word 
was  like  the  clapper  of  a  disorderly  bell,  striking  through 
him,  with  reverberations,  in  the  form  of  interrogations,  as  to 
how  he,  of  all  men  living,  could  by  any  chance  have  got 
into  a  wrangle,  in  a  thoroughfare,  on  London  Bridge,  of  all 
places  in  the  world! — he,  so  popular,  renowned  for  his 
affability,  his  amiability;  having  no  dislike  to  common  dirty 
dogs,  entirely  the  reverse,  liking  them  and  doing  his  best 
for  them ;  and  accustomed  to  receive  their  applause.  And 
in  what  way  had  he  offered  a  hint  to  bring  on  him  i  te  charge 
of  punctilio? 

But  I  am  treating  it  seriously !  he  said,  and  jerked  a  dead 
laugh  while  fixing  a  button  of  his  coat. 

That  he  should  have  treated  it  seriously,  furnished  next 
the  subject  of  cogitation ;  and  here  it  was  plainly  suggested, 
that  a  degradation   of  his  -physical  system,  owing  to  the 

V-  OF    THK  r 

UNIVERSITY 
^LcaliforH^ 


4  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

shock  of  the  fall,  must  be  seen  and  acknowledged ;  for  it 
had  become  a  perverted  engine,  to  pull  him  down  among 
the  puerilities,  and  very  soon  he  was  worrying  at  punctilio 
anew,  attempting  to  read  the  riddle  of  the  application  of  it 
to  himself,  angry  that  he  had  allowed  it  to  be  the  final  word, 
and  admitting  it  a  famous  word  for  the  closing  of  a  con- 
troversy : — it  banged  the  door  and  rolled  drum-notes  ;  it 
deafened  reason.  And  was  it  a  London  cockney  crow-word 
of  the  day,  or  a  word  that  had  stuck  in  the  fellow's  head 
from  the  perusal  of  his  pothouse  newspaper  columns? 

Furthermore,  the  plea  of  a  fall,  and  the  plea  of  a  shock 
from  a  fall,  required  to  account  for  the  triviality  of  the 
mind,  were  humiliating  to  him  who  had  never  hitherto 
missed  a  step,  or  owned  to  the  shortest  of  collapses.  This 
confession  of  deficiency  in  explosive  repartee — using  a  friend's 
term  for  the  ready  gift — was  an  old  and  a  rueiul  one  with 
Victor  Kadnor.  His  godmother  Fortune  denied  him  that. 
She  bestowed  it  on  his  friend  Fenelbm,  and  little  else. 
Simeon  Fenel'an  could  clap  the  halter  on  a  coltish  mob; 
he  had  positively  caught  the  roar  of  cries  and  stilled  it, 
by  capping  the  cries  in  turn,  until  the  people  cheered  him  ; 
and  the  effect  of  the  scene  upem.  Victor  Kadnor  disposed  him 
to  rank  the  gift  of  repartee  higher  than  a  certain  rosily 
oratorical  that  he  was  permitted  to  tell  himself  he  possessed, 
in  bottle  if  not  on  draught.  Let  it  only  be  explosive 
repartee :  the  well-fused  bomb,  the  bubble  to  the  stone,  echo 
round  the  horn.  Fenellan  would  have  discharged  an  extin- 
guisher on  punctilio  in  emission.  Victor  Kadnor  was  unable 
to  cope  witn  it  reflectively. 

No,  but  one  doesn't  like  being  beaten  by  anything !  he 
replied  to  an  admonishment  of  his  better  mind,  as  he  touched 
his  two  fingers,  more  significantly  dubious  than  the  whole 
hand,  at  the  back  of  his  head,  and  checked  or  stemmed  the 
current  of  a  fear.  For  he  was  utterly  unlike  himself;  he 
was  dwelling  on  a  trifle,  on  a  matter  discernibly  the  smallest, 
an  incident  of  the  streets  ;  and  although  he  refused  to  feel 
a  bump  or  any  responsive  notification  of  a  bruise,  he  made 
a  sacrifice  of  his  native  pride  to  his  intellectual,  in  granting 
that  he  must  have  been  shaken,  so  childishly  did  he  continue 
thinking. 

Yes,  well,  and  if  a  tumble  distorts  our  ideas  of  lite,  and 
uu  odd  word  engrosses  our  speculations,  we  are  poor  creatures, 


ACROSS   LONDON  BRIDGE.  5 

he  addressed  another  friend,  from  whom  he  stood  constitu- 
tionally in  dissent,  naming  him  Colney  ;  and  under  pressure 
of  the  name,  reviving  old  wrangles  between  them  upon  man's 
present  achievements  and  his  probable  destinies:  especially 
'jpon  England's  grandeur,  vitality,  stability,  her  intelligent 
appreciation  of  her  place  in  the  universe ;  not  to  speak  of 
the  historic  dignity  of  London  City.  Colney  had  to  be 
overcome  afresh,  and  he  fled,  but  managed,  with  two  or  three 
of  his  bitter  phrases,  to  make  a  cuttle-fish,  fight  of  it,  that 
oppressively  shadowed  his  vanquisher  : — 

The  Daniel  Lambert  of  Cities :  the  Female  Annuitant  of 
Nations:— and  such  like,  wretched  stuff,  proper  to  Colney 
Durance,  easily  dispersed  and  out-laughed  when  we  have 
our  vigour.  We  have  as  much  as  we  need  of  it  in  summon- 
ing a  contemptuous  Pooh  to  our  lips,  with  a  shrug  at 
venomous  dyspepsia. 

Nevertheless,  a  malignant  sketch  of  Colney's,  in  the  which 
Hengist  and  Horsa,  our  fishy  Saxon  originals,  in  modern 
garb  of  liveryman  and  gaitered  squire,  flat-headed,  paunchy, 
assiduously  servile,  are  shown  blacking  Ben-Israel's  boots 
and  grooming  the  princely  stud  of  the  Jew,  had  come  so 
near  to  Yictor  Kadnor's  apprehensions  of  a  possible,  if  not 
an  impending,  consummation,  that  the  ghastly  vision  of  the 
Jew  Dominant  in  London  City,  over  England,  over  Europe, 
America,  the  world  (a  picture  drawn  in  literary  sepia  by 
Colney :  with  our  poor  hang-neck  population  uncertain  about 
making  a  bell-rope  of  the  forelock  to  the  Satyr-snouty 
master;  and  the  Norman  Lord  de  Warenne  handing  him 
for  a  lump  sum  son  and  daughter,  both  to  be  Hebraized  in 
their  different  ways),  fastened  on  the  most  mercurial  of 
patriotic  men,  and  gave  him  a  whole-length  plunge  into 
despondency. 

It  lasted  nearly  a  minute.  His  recovery  was  not  in  this 
instance  due  to  the  calling  on  himself  for  the  rescue  of  an 
ancient  and  glorious  country ;  nor  altogether  to  the  spectacle 
of  the  shipping,  over  the  parapet,  to  his  right :  the  hundreds 
of  masts  rising  out  of  the  merchant  river ;  London's  unrivalled 
mezzotint  and  the  City  rhetorician's  inexhaustible  argu- 
ment :  he  gained  it  rather  from  the  imperious  demand  of  an 
animated  and  thirsty  frame  for  novel  impressions.  Commonly 
he  was  too  hot  with  his  business,  and  airy  fancies  above  it, 
when   crossing  the   bridge,   to  reflect   in    freshness   on  its 


6  ONE    OF   OUR   CONG.UERORS. 

wonders  ;  though  a  phrase  could  spring  him  alive  to  them  ; 
a  suggestion  of  the  Foreigner,  jealous,  condemned  to  admire 
in  despair  of  outstripping,  like  Satan  worsted;  or  when  a 
Premier's  fine  inflation  magnified  the  scene  at  City  banquets 
— exciting  while  audible,  if  a  waggery  in  memory  ;  or  when 
England's  cherished  Bard,  the  Leading  Article,  blew  bellows, 
and  wind  primed  the  lieges. 

That  a  phrase  on  any  other  subject  was  of  much  the  same 
effect,  in  relation  to  it,  may  be  owned  ;  he  was  lightly  kindled. 
The  scene,  however,  had  a  sharp  sparkle  of  attractiveness 
at  the  instant.  Down  went  the  twirling  horizontal  pillars 
of  a  strong  tide  from  the  arches  of  the  bridge,  bieaking  to 
wild  water  at  a  remove;  and  a  reddish  Northern  che^k  of 
curdling  pipeing  East,  at  shrilly  puffs  between  the  Tower 
and  the  Custom  House,  encountered  it  to  whip  and  ridge  the 
flood. against  descending  tug  and  long  tail  of  stein-ajerk 
empty  harges ;  with  a  steamer  slowly  noseing  round  off  the 
wharf-cranes,  preparing  to  swirl  the  screw  ;  and  half-bottom- 
upward  boats  dancing  harpooner  beside  their  whale;  along 
an  avenue,  not  fabulously  golden,  of  the  deputy  masts  of 
all  nations,  a  wintry  Woodland,  every  rag  aloft  curling  to 
volume  ;  and  here  the  spouts  and  the  mounds  of  steam,  and 
rolls  of  brown  smoke  there,  variously  undulated,  curved  to 
vanish ;  cold  blue  sky  ashift  with  the  whirl  and  dash  of  a 
very  Tartar  cavalry  of  cloud  overhead. 

Surely  a  scene  pretending  to  sublimity? 

Gazing  along  that  grand  highway  of  the  voyaging  forest, 
your  London  citizen  of  good  estate  has  reproached  his 
country's  poets  for  not  pouring  out,  succinctly  and  melo- 
diously, his  multitudinous  larvae  of  notions  begotten  by 
the  scene.  For  there  are  times  when  he  would  pay  to  have 
them  sung:  and  he  feels  them  big;  he  thinks  them  human 
in  their  bulk ;  they  are  Londinensian  ;  they  want  but  form 
and  fire  to  get  them  scored  on  the  tablets  of  the  quotable  at 
festive  boards.  This  he  can  promise  to  his  poets.  As  for 
otherwhere  than  at  the  festive.  Commerce  invoked  is  a  Goddess 
that  will  have  the  reek  of  those  boards  to  fill  her  nostrils, 
and  poet  and  alderman  alike  may  be  dedicate  to  the  sublime, 
she  leads  them,  after  two  sniffs  of  an  idea  concerning  her,  for 
the  dive  into  the  turtle-tureen.  Heels  up  they  go,  poet  first* 
— a  plummet  he  ! 

And  besides  it  is  barely  possible  for  our  rounded  citizen, 


ACROSS   LONDON    BRIDGE.  7 

in  the  mood  of  meditation,  to  direct  his  gaze  off  the  "bridge 
along  the  waterway  North-eastward  without  beholding  as 
an  eye  the  glow  of  whitebait's  bow- window  by  the  river- 
side, to  the  front  of  the  summer  sunset,  a  league  01  so  down 
stream ;  where  he  sees,  in  memory  savours,  the  Elysian  end 
of  Commerce :  frontispiece  of  a  tale  to  fetch  us  up  the  out- 
wearied  spectre  of  old  Apicius  ;  yea,  and  urge  Crispinus  to 
wheel  his  purse  into  the  market  for  the  purchase  of  a  cost- 
lier mullet ! 

But  is  the  Jew  of  the  usury  gold  becoming  our  despot- 
king  of  Commerce  ? 

In  that  case,  we  do  not  ask  our  country's  poets  to  compose 
a  single  stanza  of  eulogy's  rhymes — far  from  it.  Far  to  the 
contrary,  we  bid  ourselves  remember  the  sons  of  whom  we 
are ;  instead  of  revelling  in  the  fruits  of  Commerce,  we 
shoot  scornfully  past  those  blazing  bellied  windows  of  the 
aromatic  dinners,  and  beyond  Thames,  away  to  the  fisher- 
men's deeps.  Old  England's  native  element,  where  the 
strenuous  ancestry  of  a  race  yet  and  ever  manful  at  the 
stress  of  trial  are  heard  around  and  aloft  whistling  us  back 
to  the  splendid  strain  of  muscle,  and  spray  fringes  cloud, 
and  strong  heart  rides  the  briny  scoops  and  hillocks,  and 
Death  and  Man  are  at  grip  for  the  haul. 

There  we  find  our  nationality,  our  poetry,  no  Hebrew 
competing. 

We  do :  or  there  at  least  we  left  it.  Whether  to  recover 
it  when  wanted,  is  not  so  certain.  Humpy  Hengist  and 
dumpy  Horsa,  quitting  ledger  and  coronet,  might  recur  to 
their  sea  bow-legs  and  red-stubble  chins,  might  take  to  their 
tarpaulins  again ;  they  might  renew  their  manhood  on  the 
capture  of  cod  ;  headed  by  Harald  and  Hardiknut,  they 
might  roll  surges  to  whelm  a  Dominant  Jew  clean  gone  to 
the  fleshpots  and  effeminacy.  Aldermen  of  our  ancient  con- 
ception, they  may  teach  him  that  he  has  been  backsliding 
once  more,  and  must  repent  in  ashes,  as  those  who  are  for 
jewels,  titles,  essences,  banquets,  for  wallowing  in  slimy 
spawn  of  lucre,  have  ever  to  do.  They  dispossess  him  of  his 
greedy  gettings. 

And  how  of  the  Law  ? 

But  the  Law  is  always,  and  must  ever  be,  the  Law  of  the 
stronger. 

— Ay,  but  brain  beats  muscle,  and  what  if  the  Jew  should 


8  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

prove  to  have  superior  power  of  brain  ?  A  dreaded  hypo- 
thesis !  Why,  then  you  see  the  insurgent  Saxon  seamen  (of 
the  names  in  two  syllables  with  accent  on  the  first),  and 
their  Danish  captains,  and  it  may  be  but  a  remnant  of  high- 
nosed  old  Norman  Lord  de  Warenne  beside  them,  in  the 
criminal  box:  and  presently  the  Jew  smoking  a  giant 
regalia  cigar  on  a  balcony  giving  view  of  a  gallows-tree. 
But  we  will  try  that:  on  our  side,  to  back  a  native  pug- 
nacity, is  morality,  humanity,  fraternity — nature's  rights, 
aha !  and  who  withstands  them  ?  on  his,  a  troop  of  merce- 
naries ! 

— And  that  lands  me  in  Eed  Eepublicanism,  a  hop  and 
a  skip  from  Socialism  !  said  Mr.  Eadnor,  and  chuckled  ironi- 
cally at  the  natural  declivity  he  had  come  to.  Still,  there 
was  an  idea  in  it.  .  .  . 

A  short  run  or  attempt  at  running  after  the  idea,  ended 
in  pain  to  his  head  near  the  spot  where  the  haunting  word 
punctilio  caught  at  any  excuse  for  clamouring. 

Yet  we  cannot  relinquish  an  idea  that  was  ours ;  we  are 
vowed  to  the  pursuit  of  it.  Mr.  Eadnor  lighted  on  the 
tracks,  by  dint  of  a  thought  flung  at  his  partner  Mr.  Inch- 
ling's  dread  of  the  Jews.  Inchling  dreaded  Scotchmen  as 
well,  and  Americans,  and  Armenians,  and  Greeks  :  latterly 
Germans  hardly  less ;  but  his  dread  of  absorption  in  Jewry, 
signifying  subjection,  had  often  precipitated  a  deplorable 
shrug,  in  which  Victor  Eadnor  now  perceived  the  skirts  of 
his  idea,  even  to  a  fancy  that  something  of  the  idea  must 
have  struck  Inchling  when  he  shrugged  :  the  idea  being  .  .  . 
he  had  lost  it  again.  Definition  seemed  to  be  an  extirpating 
enemy  of  this  idea,  or  she  was  by.  nature  shy.  She  was 
very  feminine;  coming  when  she  willed  and  flying  when 
wanted.  Not  until  nigh  upon  the  close  of  his  history 
did  she  return,  iull-siatured  and  einoraoeable,  to  Victor 
Eadnor, 


(    9    ) 

CHAPTER   II. 

THROUGH   THE    VAGUE   TO   THE   INFINITELY    LITTLE. 

The  fair  dealing  with  readers  demands  of  us,  that  a  narra- 
tive shall  not  proceed  at  slower  pace  than  legs  of  a  man  in 
motion;  and  we  are  still  but  little  more  than  midway  across 
London  Bridge.  But  if  a  man's  mind  is  to  be  taken  as  a 
part  of  him,  the  likening  of  it,  at  an  introduction,  to  an 
army  on  the  opening  march  of  a  great  campaign,  should 
plead  excuses  for  tardy  forward  movements,  in  consideration 
of  the  large  amount  of  matter  you  have  to  review  before 
you  can  at  all  imagine  yourselves  to  have  made  his  acquaint- 
ance. This  it  is  not  necessary  to  do  when  you  are  set 
astride  the  enchanted  horse  of  the  Tale,  which  leaves  the 
man's  mind  at  home  while  he  performs  the  deeds  befitting 
him :  he  can  indeed  be  rapid  Whether  more  active,  is  a 
question  asking  for  your  notions  of  the  governing  element 
in  the  composition  of  man,  and  of  his  present  business  here. 
The  Tale  inspirits  one's  earlier  ardours,  when  we  sped  with- 
out baggage,  when  the  Impossible  was  wings  to  imagination, 
and  heroic  sculpture  the  simplest  act  of  the  chisel.  It  does 
not  advance, 'tis  true;  it  drives  the  whirligig  circle  round 
and  round  the  single  existing  central  point;  but  it  is 
enriched  with  applause  of  the  boys  and  girls  of  both  ages 
in  this  land  ;  and  all  the  English  critics  heap  their  honours 
on  its  brave  old  Simplicity : — our  national  literary  flag, 
which  signalizes  us  while  we  float,  subsequently  to  flap 
above  the  shallows.  One  may  sigh  for  it.  An  ill-fortuned 
minstrel  who  has  by  fateful  direction  been  brought  to  see 
with  distinctness,  that  man  is  not  as  much  comprised  in 
external  features  as  the  monkey,  will  be  devoted  to  the  task 
of  the  fuller  portraiture. 

Alter  his  ineffectual  catching  at  the  volatile  idea,  Mr. 
Kadnor  found  repose  in  thoughts  of  his  daughter  and  her 
dear  mother.  They  had  begged  him  to  put  on  an  overcoat 
this  day  of  bitter  wind,  or  a  silken  kerchief  for  the  throat. 
Faithful  to  the  Spring,  it  had  been  his  habit  since  boyhood 
to  show  upon  his  person  something  of  the  hue  of  the  vernal 
month,    the  white   of  the   daisied   meadow,    and   although 


10  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

he  owned  a  light  overcoat  to  dangle  from  shoulders  at  the 
Opera  crush,  he  declined  to  wear  it  for  protection.  His 
gesture  of  shaking  and  expanding  whenever  the  tender 
request  was  urged  on  him,  signified  a  physical  opposition  to 
the  control  of  garments.  Mechanically  now,  while  doating 
in  fancy  over  the  couple  beseeching  him,  he  loosened  the 
button  across  his  defaced  waistcoat,  exposed  a  large  measure 
of  chest  to  flaws  of  a  wind  barbed  on  Norwegian  peaks  by 
the  brewers  of  cough  and  catarrh — horrid  women  of  the 
whistling  clouts,  in  the  pay  of  our  doctors.  He  braved 
them ;  he  starved  the  profession.  He  was  that  man  in  fifty 
thousand  who  despises  hostile  elements  and  goes  unpunished, 
calmly  erect  among  a  sneezing  and  tumbled  host,  as  a  light- 
house overhead  of  breezy  fleets.  The  coursing  of  his  blood 
was  by  comparison  electrical ;  he  had  not  the  sensation  of 
cold,  other  than  that  of  an  effort  of  the  elements  to  arouse 
him  ;  and  so  quick  was  he,  through  this  fine  animation,  to 
feel,  think,  act,  that  the  three  successive  tributaries  of  con- 
duct appeared  as  an  irreflective  flash  and  a  gamester's  daring 
in  the  vein  to  men  who  had  no  deep  knowledge  of  him 
and  his  lightning  arithmetic  for  measuring,  sounding,  and 
deciding. 

Naturally  he  was  among  the  happiest  of  human  creatures; 
he  willed  it  so,  with  consent  of  circumstances;  a  boisterous 
consent,  as  when  votes  are  reckoned  for  a  favourite  candi- 
date :  excepting  on  the  part  of  a  small  band  of  black  dissen- 
tients in  a  corner,  a  minute  opaque  body,  devilish  in  their 
irreconcilability,  who  maintain  their  struggle  to  provoke 
discord,  with  a  cry  disclosing  the  one  error  of  his  youth,  ihe 
sole  bad  step  rhargeable  upon  his  antecedents.  But  do  we 
listen  to  them?  Shall  we  not  have  them  turned  out?  He 
gives  the  sign  for  it ;  and  he  leaves  his  buoying  constituents 
to  outrour  them :  and  he  tells  a  friend  that  it  was  not,  as 
one  may  say,  an  error,  although  an  erratic  step  :  but  let  us 
explain  to  our  bosom  friend;  it  was  a  step  quite  unregretted, 
gloried  in  ;  a  step  deliberately  marked,  to  be  done  again, 
were  the  time  renewed :  it  was  a  step  necessitated  (emphati- 
cally) by  a  false  preceding  step;  and  having  youth  to  plead 
for  it,  in  the  first  instance,  youth  and  ignorance ;  and 
secondly,  and  0  how  deeply  truly  !  Love.  Deep  true  love, 
proved  by  years,  is  the  advocate. 

He  tells  himself  at  the  same  time,  after  lending  ear  to  the 


THROUGH   THE   VAGUE   TO   THE   INFINITELY  LITTLE.       11 

advocate's  exordium  and  a  favourite  sentence,  that,  judged 
by  the  Powers  (to  them  only  can  he  expose  the  whole  skele- 
ton-cupboard of  the  case),  judged  by  those  clear-sighted 
Powers,  he  is  exonerated. 

To  be  exonerated  by  those  awful  Powers,  is  to  be  approved. 

As  to  that,  there  is  no  doubt :  whom  they,  all-seeing,  dis- 
cerning as  they  do,  acquit  they  justify. 

Whom  they  justify,  they  compliment. 

They,  seeing  all  the  facts,  are  not  unintelligent  of  distinc- 
tions, as  the  world  is. 

What,  to  them,  is  the  spot  of  the  error  ? — admitting  it  as 
an  error.  They  know  it  for  a  thing  of  convention,  not  of 
Nature.  We  stand  forth  to  plead  it  in  proof  of  an  adherence 
to  Nature's  laws :  we  affirm  that,  far  from  a  defilement,  it  is 
an  illumination  and  stamp  of  nobility.  On  the  beloved  who 
shares  it  with  us,  it  is  a  stamp  of  the  highest  nobility.  Our 
world  has  many  ways  for  signifying  its  displeasure,  but  it 
cannot  brand  an  angel. 

This  was  another  favourite  sentence  of  Love's  grand 
oration  for  the  defence.  So  seductive  was  it  to  the  Powers 
who  sat  in  judgement  on  the  case,  that  they  all,  when  the 
sentence  came,  turned  eyes  upon  the  angel,  and  they  smiled. 

They  do  not  smile  on  the  condemnable. 

She,  then,  were  he  rebuked,  would  have  strength  to  uplift 
him.  And  who,  calling  her  his  own,  could  be  placed  in 
second  rank  among  the  blissful ! 

Mr.  Eadnor  could  rationally  say  that  he  was  made  for 
happiness;  he  flew  to  it,  he  breathed,  dispensed  it.  How 
conceive  the  clear-sighted  celestial  Powers  as  opposing  his 
claim  to  that  estate  ?  Not  they.  He  knew,  for  he  had  them 
safe  in  the  locked  chamber  of  his  breast,  to  yield  him  sub- 
servient responses.  The  world,  or  Puritanic  members  of  it, 
had  pushed  him  to  the  trial  once  or  twice — or  had  put  on  an 
air  of  doing  so  ;  creating  a  temporary  disturbance,  ending  in 
a  merry  duet  with  his  daughter  Nesta  Victoria :  a  glorious 
trio  when  her  mother  Natalia,  sweet  lily  that  she  was,  shook 
the  rainwater  from  her  cup  and  followed  the  good  example 
to  shine  in  the  sun. 

He  had  a  secret  for  them. 

Nesta's  promising  soprano,  and  her  mother's  contralto, 
and  his  baritone — a  true  baritone,  not  so  well  trained  as 
their  accurate  notes — should  be  rising  in  spirited  union  with 


12  ONE    OP   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

the  cur  fain  of  that  secret :  there  was  matter  for  song  and 
concert,  triumph  and  gratulation  in  it.  And  during  the 
whole  passage  of  the  bridge,  he  had  not  once  cast  thought  on 
a  secret  so  palpitating,  the  cause  of  the  morning's  expedition 
and  a  long  year's  prospect  of  the  present  day  !  It  seemed  to 
have  been  knocked  clean  out  of  it — punctilioed  out,  Fenellan 
might  say.  Nor  had  any  combinations  upon  the  theme  of 
business  displaced  it.  Just  before  the  fall,  the  whole  drama 
of  the  unfolding  of  that  secret  was  brilliant  to  his  eyes  as  a 
scene  on  a  stage. 

He  refused  to  feel  any  sensible  bruise  on  his  head,  with 
the  admission  that  he  perhaps  might  think  he  felt  one : 
which  was  virtually  no  more  than  the  feeling  of  a  thought ; 
— what  his  friend  Dr.  Peter  Yatt  would  define  as  feeling 
a  rotifer  astir  in  the  curative  compartment  of  a  homoeo- 
pathic globule:  and  a  playful  fancy  may  do  that  or  anything. 
Only,  Sanity  does  not  allow  the  infinitely  little  to  disturb  us... 

Mr.  Radnor  had  a  quaint  experience  of  the  effects  of  the 
infinitely  little  while  threading  his  way  to  a  haberdasher's 
shop  for  new  white  waistcoats.  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
representative  statue  of  City  Corporations  and  London's 
majesty,  the  figure  of  Eoyalty,  worshipful  in  its  marbled 
redundancy,  fronting  the  bridge,  on  the  slope  where  the  seas 
of  fish  and  fruit  below  throw  up  a  thin  line  of  their  drift, 
he  stood  contemplating  the  not  unamiable,  reposefully-jolly 
Gruelphic  countenance,  from  the  loose  jowl  to  the  bent  knee, 
as  if  it  were  a  novelty  to  him  ;  unwilling  to  trust  himself  to 
the  roadway  he  had  often  traversed,  equally  careful  that  his 
hesitation  should  not  be  seen.  A  trifle  more  impressttde,  he 
might  have  imagined  the  smoky  figure  and  magnunrof  pur- 
siness  barring  the  City  against  him.  He  could  have  laughed 
aloud  at  the  hypocrisy  behind  his  quiet  look  of  provincial 
wonderment  at  London's  sculptor's  art;  and  he  was  partly 
tickled  as  well  by  the  singular  fit  of  timidity  enchaining 
him.  Cart,  omnibus,  cab,  van,  barrow,  donkey-tray,  went 
by  in  strings,  broken  here  and  there,  and  he  could  not  induce 
his  legs  to  take  advantage  of  the  gaps ;  he  listened  to  a 
warning  that  he  would  be  down  again  if  he  tried  it,  among 
those  wheels ;  and  his  nerves  clutched  him,  like  a  troop  of 
household  women,  to  keep  him  from  the  hazard  of  an  expo- 
sure to  the  horrid  crunch,  pitiless  as  tiger's  teeth ;  and  we 
may  say  truly,  that  once  down,  or  once  out  of  the  rutted 


THROUGH    THE    VAGUE    TO    THE    INFINITELY   LITTLE.       13 

line,  you  are  food  for  lion  and  jackal — the  forces  of  the 
world  will  have  you  in  their  mandibles. 

An  idea  was  there  too ;  but  it  would  not  accept  pursuit. 

"  A  pretty  scud  overhead  ?  "  said  a  voice  at  his  ear. 

"  For  tine  ! — to-day  at  least,"  Mr.  Eadnor  affably  replied 
to  a  stranger;  and  gazing  on  the  face  of  his  friend  Fenellan, 
knew  the  voice,  and  laughed  :  "You?"  He  straightened 
his  back  immediately  to  cross  the  road,  dismissing  nervous- 
ness as  a  vapour,  asking,  between  a  cab  and  a  van :  "  Any- 
thing doing  in  the  City  ?  "  For  Mr.  Fenellan's  proper  station 
faced  Westward. 

The  reply  was  deferred  until  they  had  reached  the  pave- 
ment, when  Mr.  Fenellan  said  :  "  I'll  tell  you,"  and  looked  a 
dubious  preface,  to  his  friend's  thinking. 

But  it  was  merely  the  mental  inquiry  following  a  glance 
at  mud-spots  on  the  coat. 

"  We'll  lunch  ;  lunch  with  me,  I  must  eat,  tell  me  then," 
said  Mr.  Eadnor,  adding  within  himself:  "  Emptiness  !  want 
of  food !  "  to  account  for  receut  ejaculations  and  qualms. 
He  had  not  eaten  for  a  good  four  hours. 

Fenellan's  tone  signified  to  his  feverish  sensibility  of  the 
moment,  that  the  matter  was  personal ;  and  the  intimation 
of  a  touch  on  domestic  affairs  caused  sinkings  in  his  vacuity, 
much  as  though  liis  heart  were  having  a  fall. 

He  mentioned  the  slip  on  the  bridge,  to  explain  his  need 
to  visit  a  haberdasher's  shop,  and  pointed  at  the  waistcoat. 

Mr.  Fenellan  was  compassionate  over  the  "  Poor  virgin  of 
the  smoky  city  !  " 

"  They  have  their  ready-made  at  these  shops — last  year's 
perhaps,  never  mind,  do  for  the  day,"  said  Mr.  Eadnor, 
impatient  for  eating,  now  that  he  had  spoken  of  it.  "  A 
basin  of  turtle ;  I  can't  wait.  A  brush  of  the  coat ;  mud 
must  be  dry  by  this  time.  Clear  turtle,  I  think,  with  a 
bottle  of  the  Old  Veuve.  Not  bad  news  to  tell  ?  You  like 
that  Old  Veuve?" 

"  Too  well  to  tell  bad  news  of  her,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan  in 
a  manner  to  reassure  his  friend,  as  he  intended.  "  You  wouldn't 
credit  it  for  the  Spring  of  the  year,  without  the  spotless 
waistcoat?" 

"Something  of  that,  I  suppose."  And  so  saying,  Mr. 
Eadnor  entered  the  shop  of  his  quest,  to  be  complimented 
by  the  shopkeeper,  while  the  attendants  climbed  the  ladder 


14  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

to  upper  stages  for  white-waistcoat  boxes,  on  his  being  the 
first  bird  of  the  season ;  which  it  pleased  him  to  hear ;  for 
the  smallest  of  bur  gratifications  in  life  could  give  a  happy 
tone  to  this  brightly -constituted  gentleman. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OLD   VEUVE. 

They  were  known  at  the  house  of  the  turtle  and  the  attrac- 
tive Old  Veuve  :  a  champagne  of  a  sobered  sweetness,  of  a 
great  year,  a  great  age,  counting  up  to  the  extremer  maturity 
attained  by  wines  of  stilly  depths ;  and  their  worthy  comrade, 
despite  the  wanton  sparkles,  for  the  promoting  of  the  state 
of  reverential  wonderment  in  rapture,  which  an  ancient  wine 
will  lead  to,  well  you  wot.  The  silly  girly  sugary  crudity 
has  given  way  to  womanly  suavity,  matronly  composure, 
with  yet  the  sparkles ;  they  ascend ;  but  hue  and  flavour 
tell  of  a  soul  that  has  come  to  a  lodgement  there.  It 
conducts  the  youthful  man  to  temples  of  dusky  thought : 
philosophers  partaking  of  it  are  drawn  by  the  arms  of  garlanded 
nymphs  about  their  necks  into  the  fathomless  of  inquiries. 
It  presents  us  with  a  sphere,  for  the  pursuit  of  the  thing  we 
covet  most.  It  bubbles  over  mellowness ;  it  has,  in  the 
marriage  with  Time,  extracted  a  spice  of  individuality  from 
the  saccharine :  by  miracle,  one  would  say,  were  it  not  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  right  noble  issue  of  Time  when  he  and 
good  things  unite.  There  should  be  somewhere  legends  of 
him  and  the  wine-flask.  There  must  be  meanings  to  that 
effect  in  the  Mythology,  awaiting  unravelment.  For  the 
subject  opens  to  deeper  than  cellars,  and  is  a  tree  with  vast 
ramifications  of  the  roots  and  the  spreading  growth,  whereon 
half  if  not  all  the  mythic  Gods,  Inferior  and  Superior, 
Infernal  and  Celestial,  might  be  shown  sitting  in  concord, 
performing  in  concert,  harmoniously  receiving  sacrificial 
offerings  of  the  black  or  the  white ;  and  the  black  not 
extinguishing  the  fairer  fellow.  Tell  us  of  a  certainty  that 
Time  has  embraced  the  wine-flask,  then  may  it  be  asserted 
(assuming  the  great  year  for  the  wine,  i.e.  combinations  above) 


OLD    VEUVE.  15 

that  a  speck  of  the  white  within  us  who  drink  will  conquer, 
to  rise  in  main  ascension  over  volumes  of  the  black.  It  may, 
at  a  greater  venture,  but  confidently,  be  said  in  plain  speech, 
that  the  Bacchus  of  auspicious  birth  induces  ever  to  the 
worship  of  the  loftier  Deities. 

Think  as  you  will ;  forbear  to  come  hauling  up  examples  of 
malarious  men,  in  whom  these  pourings  of  the  golden  rays 
of  life  breed  fogs ;  and  be  moved,  since  you  are  scarcely  under 
an  obligation  to  hunt  the  meaning,  in  tolerance  of  some 
dithyrambic  inebriety  of  narration  (quiverings  of  the 
reverent  pen)  when  we  find  ourselves  entering  the  circle  of 
a  most  magnetic  polarity.  Take  it  for  not  worse  than 
accompanying  choric  flourishes,  in  accord  with  Mr.  Victor 
Eadnor  and  Mr.  Simeon  Ifenellan  at  their  sipping  of  the 
venerable  wine. 

Seated  in  a  cosy  corner,  near  the  grey  City  window  edged 
with  a  sooty  maze,  they  praised  the  wine,  in  the  neuter  and  in 
the  feminine  ;  that  for  the  glass,  this  for  the  widow-branded 
bottle  :  not  as  poets  hymning ;  it  was  done  in  the  City 
manner,  briefly,  part  pensively,  like  men  travelling  to  the 
utmost  bourne  of  flying  flavour  (a  dell  in  infinite  aether),  and 
still  masters  of  themselves  and  at  home. 

Such  a  wine,  in  its  capturing  permeation  of  us,  insists  on 
being  for  a  time  a  theme. 

••  I  wonder !  "  said  Mr.  Eadnor,  completely  restored,  eyeing 
his  half-emptied  second  glass  and  his  boon-fellow. 

"  Low  !  "     Mr.  Fenellan  shook  head. 

"  Half  a  dozen  dozen  left  ?  " 

"  Nearer  the  half  of  that.     And  who's  the  culprit  ?  " 

"  Old  days  !  They  won't  let  me  have  another  dozen  out 
of  the  house  now." 

"  They'll  never  hit  on  such  another  discovery  in  their 
cellar,  unless  they  unearth  a  fifth  corner." 

**I  don't  blame  them  for  making  the  price  prohibitive. 
And  sound  as  ever !  " 

Mr.  Eadnor  watched  the  deliberate  constant  ascent  of 
bubbles  through  their  rose-topaz  transparency.  He  drank. 
That  notion  of  the  dish  of  turtle  was  an  inspiration  of  the 
right :  he  ought  always  to  know  it  for  the  want  of  replenish- 
ment when  such  a  man  as  he  went  quaking.  His  latest 
experiences  of  himself  were  incredible ;  but  they  passed,  as 
the  dimples   of  the   stream.     He   finished   his  third  glass. 


16  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

The  bottle,  like  the  cellar-wine,  was  at  ebb  :  unlike  the 
cellar-wine,  it  conld  be  set  flowing  again.  He  prattled,  in 
the  happy  ignorance  of  compulsion  : 

"  Fenellan,  remember,  I  had  a  sort  of  right  to  the  wine — 
to  the  best  I  could  get ;  and  this  Old  Veuve,  more  than  any- 
other,  is  a  bridal  wine!  We  heard  of  Giulia  Sanfredini's 
marriage  to  come  off  with  the  Spanish  Duke,  and  drank  it 
to  the  toast  of  our  little  Nesta's  godmother.  I've  told  you. 
We  took  the  girl  to  the  Opera,  when  quite  a  little  one — that 
high  : — and  I  declare  to  you,  it  was  marvellous  !  Next  morn- 
ing after  breakfast,  she  plants  herself  in  the  middle  of  the 
room,  and  strikes  her  attitude  for  song,  and  positively, 
almost  with  the  Sanfredini's  voice— illusion  of  it,  you  know, 
— trills  us  out  more  than  I  could  have  believed  credible  to 
be  recollected — by  a  child.  But  I've  told  you  the  story. 
We  called  her  Fredi  from  that  day.  I  sent  the  diva,  with 
excuses  and  compliments,  a  nuptial  present — necklace,  Roman 
goldwork,  locket-pendant,  containing  sunny  curl,  and  below 
a  fine  pearl ;  really  pretty ;  telling  her  our  grounds  for  the 
liberty.  She  replied,  accepting  the  responsible  office;  touch- 
ing letter — w«  found  it  so;  framed  in  Fredi's  room,  under 
her  godmother's  photograph.  Fredi  has  another  heroine 
now,  though  she  worships  her  old  one  still ;  she  never 
abandons  her  old  ones.  You've  heard  the  story  over  and 
over ! " 

Mr.  Fenellan  nodded  ;  he  had  a  tenderness  for  the  garrulity 
of  Old  Veuve,  and  for  the  damsel.  Chatter  on  that  subject 
ran  pleasantly  with  their  entertainment. 

Mr.  Radnor  meanwhile  scribbled,  and  despatched  a  strip 
of  his  Note-book,  bearing  a  scrawl  of  orders,  to  his  office.  He 
was  now  fully  himself,  benevolent,  combative,  gay,  alert  for 
amusement  or  the  probing  of  schemes  to  the  quick,  weighing 
the  good  and  the  bad  in  them  with  his  fine  touch  on  proportion. 

"  City  dead  fiat?  A  monotonous  key;  but  it's  about  the 
same  as  fetching  a  breath  after  a  run;  only,  true,  it  lasts 
too  long— not  healthy  !  Skepsey  will  bring  me  my  letters. 
I  wrs  down  in  the  country  early  this  morning,  looking  over 
the  house,  with  Taplow,  my  arc  hitect ;  and  he  speaks  fairly 
well  of  the  contractors.  Yes,  down  at  Lakelands,  and  saw 
my  first  lemon  butterfly  in  a  dell  of  sunshine,  out  of  the 
wind,  and  had  half  a  mind  to  catch  it  for  Fredi, — and  should 
have  caught  it  myself,  if  I  had !     The  truth  is,  we  three  are 


OLD   VEUVE.  17 

country  born  and  bred;  we  pine  in  London.  Good  for  a 
season;  you  know  my  old  feeling.  They  are  to  learn  the 
secret  of  Lakelands  to-morrow.  It's  great  fun ;  they  think 
I  don't  see  they've  had  their  suspicion  for  some  time.  You 
said — somebody  said— 'the  eye  of  a  needle  for  what  they  let 
slip  of  their  secrets,  and  the  point  of  it  for  penetrating 
yours : » — women.  But  no  ;  my  dear  souls  didn't  prick  and 
bother.  And  they  dealt  with  a  man  in  armour.  I  carry 
them  down  to  Lakelands  to  morrow,  if  the  City's  flat." 

'•Keeping  a  secret's  the  lid  on  a  boiling  pot  with  you," 
Mr.  Fenellan  said ;  and  he  mused  on  the  profoundness  of  the 
flavour  at  his  lips. 

"I  do  it." 

"  You  do :  up  to  bursting  at  the  breast." 

"  I  keep  it  from  Colney !  " 

"  As  Vesuvius  keeps  it  from  Palmieri  when  shaking  him." 

"  Has  old  Colney  an  idea  of  it  ?  " 

44  He  has  been  foretelling  an  eruption  of  an  edifice." 

The  laugh  between  them  subsided  to  pensiveness. 

Mr.  Fenellan's  delay  in  the  delivery  of  his  news  was 
eloquent  to  reveal  the  one  hateful  topic ;  and  this  being  seen, 
it  waxed  to  such  increase  of  size  with  the  passing  seconds, 
that  prudence  called  for  it. 

"  Come  ! "  said  Mr.  Kadnor. 

The  appeal  was  understood. 

*4  Nothing  very  particular.  I  came  into  the  City  to  look 
at  a  warehouse  they  want  to  mount  double  guard  on.  Your 
idea  of  the  fireman's  night-patrol  and  wires  has  done  wonders 
for  the  office." 

"  I  guarantee  the  City  if  all  my  directions  are  followed." 

Mr.  Fenellan's  remark,  that  he  had  nothing  very  particular 
to  tell,  reduced  it  to  the  mere  touch  upon  a  vexatious  matter, 
which  one  has  to  endure  in  the  ears  at  times ;  but  it  may  be 
postponed.  So  Mr.  Eadnor  encouraged  him  to  talk  of  an 
Insurance  Office  Investment.  Where  it  is  all  bog  and  mist, 
as  in  the  City  to-day,  the  maxim  is,  not  to  take  a  step,  they 
agreed.  Whether  it  was  attributable  to  an  unconsumed  glut 
of  the  markets,  or  apprehensions  of  a  panic,  had  to  be  con- 
sidered. Both  gentlemen  were  angry  with  the  Birds  on  the 
flags  of  foreign  nations,  which  would  not  imitate  a  sawdust 
Lion  to  couch  reposei'ully.  Incessantly  they  scream  and 
sharpen  talons. 

0 


18  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

"  They  crack  the  City  bubbles  and  bladders,  at  all  events," 
M.r.  Fenellan  said.  "  But  if  we  let  our  journals  go  on  making 
use  of  them,  in  the  shape  of  sham  hawks  overhead,  we  shall 
pay  for  their  one  good  day  of  the  game  with  our  loss  of  the 
covey.     An  unstable  London's  no  world's  market-place." 

"  No,  no ;  it's  a  niggardly  national  purse,  not  the  journals," 
Mr.  Radnor  said.  "The  journals  are  trading  engines. 
Panics  are  grist  to  them ;  so  are  wars ;  but  they  do  their 
duty  in  warning  the  taxpayer  and  rousing  Parliament.  Dr. 
Schlesien's  right :  we  go  on  believing  that  our  God  Neptune 
'/vill  do  everything  for  us,  and  won't  see  that  Steam  has 
paralyzed  his  Trident : — good  !  You  and  Colney  are  hard 
on  Schlesien — or  at  him,  I  should  say.  He's  right :  if  we 
won't  learn  that  we  have  become  Continentals,  we  shall  be 
marched  over.     Laziness,  cowardice,  he  says." 

"Oh,  be  hanged!"  interrupted  Fenellan.  "As  much  of 
the  former  as  you  like.  He's  right  about  our  '  individual- 
ismus '  being  another  name  for  selfishness,  and  showing  the 
usual  deficiency  in  external  features;  it's  an  individualism 
of  all  of  a  pattern,  as  when  a  mob  cuts  its  lucky,  each  fellow 
his  own  way.  Well,  then,  conscript  them,  and  they'll  be  all 
of  a  better  pattern.  The  only  thing  to  do,  and  the  cheapest. 
By  heaven  !  it's  the  only  honourable  thing  to  do." 

Mr.  Eadnor  disapproved.     "  No  conscription  here." 

"  Not  till  you've  got  the  drop  of  poison  in  your  blood,  in 
the  form  of  an  army  landed.  That  will  teach  you  to  catch 
at  the  drug." 

"  No,  Fenellan  !  Besides  they've  got  to  land.  I  guarantee 
a  trusty  army  and  navy  under  a  contract,  at  two-thirds  of 
the  present  cost.  We'll  start  a  National  Defence  Insurance 
Company  after  the  next  panic." 

"During,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan,  and  there  was  a  flutter  of 
laughter  at  the  unobtrusive  hint  for  seizing  Dame  England 
in  the  mood. 

Both  dropped  a  sigh. 

"But  you  must  try  and  run  down  with  us  to  Lakelands 
to-morrow,"  Mr.  Radnor  resumed  on  a  cheerluller  theme. 
"  You  have  not  yet  seen  all  I've  done  there.  And  it's  a 
castle  with  a  drawbridge :  no  exchangeing  of  visits,  as  we  did 
at  Craye  Farm  and  at  Creckholt ;  we  are  there  for  country 
air ;  we  don't  court  neighbours  at  all — perhaps  the  elect ;  it 
will  depend  on  Nataly's  wishes.     We  can  accommodate  our 


OLD   VEUVE,  19 

Concert-set,  and  about  thirty  or  forty  more,  for  as  long  as 
they  like.  You  see,  that  was  my  intention — to  be  inde- 
pendent of  neighbouring  society.  Madame  Callet  guarantees 
dinners  or  hot  suppers  for  eighty — and  Armandine  is  the 
last  person  to  be  recklessly  boasting. — When  was  it  I  was 
thinking  last  of  Armandine  ?  "  He  asked  himself  that,  as 
he  rubbed  at  the  back  of  his  head. 

Mr.  Fenellan  was  reading  his  friend's  character  by  the 
light  of  his  remarks  and  in  opposition  to  them,  after  the 
critical  fashion  of  intimates  who  know  as  well  as  hear :  but 
it  was  amiably  and  trippingly,  on  the  dance  of  the  wine  in 
his  veins. 

His  look,  however,  was  one  that  reminded ;  and  Mr. 
Radnor  cried  :  "  Now !  whatever  it  is  !  " 

"  I  had  an  interview : — I  assure  you,"  Mr.  Fenellan  inter- 
posed to  pacify :  "  the  smallest  of  trifles,  and  to  be  expected  : 
I  thought  you  ought  to  know  it : — an  interview  with  her 
lawyer ;  office  business,  increase  of  Insurance  on  one  of  her 
City  warehouses." 

"  Speak  her  name,  speak  the  woman's  name ;  we're  talking 
like  a  pair  of  conspirators,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Radnor. 

*'  He  informed  me  that  Mrs.  Burman  has  heard  of  the  new 
mansion." 

"  My  place  at  Lakelands  ?  " 

Mr.  Radnor's  clear-water  eyes  hardened  to  stony  as  their 
vision  ran  along  the  consequences  of  her  having  heard  it. 

"  Earlier  this  time ! "  he  added,  thrummed  on  the  table, 
and  thumped  with  knuckles.  "  I  make  ray  stand  at  Lake- 
lands for  good  !     Nothing  mortal  moves  me !  " 

"  That  butler  of  hers " 

"  Jarniman,  you  mean  :  he's  her  butler,  yes,  the  scoundrel 
— h'm — pah !  Heaven  forgive  me  !  she's  an  honest  woman 
at  least ;  I  wouldn't  rob  her  of  her  little  :  fifty-nine  or  sixty 
next  September,  fifteenth  of  the  month  !  with  the  constitution 
of  a  broken  drug-bottle,  poor  soul !  She  hears  everything 
from  Jarniman  :  he  catches  wind  of  everything.  All  fore- 
seen, Fenellan,  foreseen.  I  have  made  my  stand  at  Lake- 
lands, and  there's  my  flag  till  it's  hauled  down  over  Victor 
Radnor.  London  kills  Nataly  as  well  as  Fredi — and  me: 
that  is — I  can  use  the  words  to  you — I  get  back  to  primal 
innocence  in  the  country.  We  all  three  have  the  feeling. 
You're   a   man   to  understand.     My   beasts,   and   the   wild 


20  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

flowers,  hedge-banks,  and  stars.  Fredi's  poetess  will  tell 
yon.  Quiet  waters  reflecting;.  I  should  feel  it  in  Paris  as 
well,  though  they  have  nightingales  in  their  Bois.  It's  the 
rustic  I  want  to  bathe  me ;  and  I  had  the  feeling  at  school, 
biting  at  Horace.  Well,  this  is  my  Sabine  Farm,  rather  on 
a  larger  scale,  for  the  sake  of  friends.  Come,  and  pure  air, 
water  from  the  springs,  walks  and  rides  in  lanes,  high  sand- , 
lanes ;  Nataly  loves  them ;  Fredi  worships  the  old  roots  of 
trees:  she  calls  them  the  faces  of  those  weedy  sandy  lanes. 
And  the  two  dear  souls  on  their  own  estate,  Fenellan  !  And 
their  poultry,  cows,  cream.  And  a  certain  influence  one  has 
in  the  country  socially.  I  make  my  siand  on  a  home — not 
empty  punctilio." 

Mr.  Fenellan  repeated,  in  a  pause,  "  Punctilio,"  and  not 
emphatically. 

"Don't  bawl  the  word,"  said  Mr.  Radnor,  at  the  drum  of 
whose  ears  it  rang  and  sang.  "Here  in  the  City  the 
soman's  harmless ;  and  here,"  he  struck  his  breast.  "  But 
Bhe  can  shoot  and  hit  another  through  me.  Ah,  the  witch  ! — 
poor  wretch  !  poor  soul !  Only,  she's  malignant.  I  could 
swear  !  But  Colney's  right  for  once  in  something  he  says 
about  oaths — 'dropping  empty  buckets.'  or  something." 

"  '  Empty  buckets  to  haul  up  impotent  demons,  whom  we 
have  to  pay  as  heavily  as  the  ready  devil  himself,'  "  Mr. 
Fenellan  supplied  the  phrase.  "  Only,  the  moment  old 
Colney  moralizes,  he's  what  the  critics  call  sententious. 
We've  all  a  parlous  lot  too  much  pulpit  in  us." 

"  Come,  Fenellan,  I  don't  think  .  .  . " 

"  Oh  yes,  but  it's  true  of  me  too." 

"  You  reserve  it  for  your  enemies." 

"  I'd  like  to  distract  it  a  bit  from  the  biggest  of  'em." 
He  pointed  finger  at  the  region  of  the  heart. 

"  Here  we  have  Skepsey,"  said  Mr.  Radnor,  observing  the 
rapid  approach  of  a  lean  small  figure,  that  in  about  the  time 
of  a  straight-aimed  javelin's  cast,  shot  from  the  doorway  to 
the  table.  , 


(     21     ) 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   SECOND    BOTTLE. 

This  little  dart  of  a  man  came  to  a  stop  at  a  respectful 
distance  from  his  master,  having  the  look  of  an  arrested 
needle  in  mechanism.  His  lean  slip  of  face  was  an  illumi- 
nation of  vivacious  grey  from  the  quickest  of  prominent 
large  eyes.  He  placed  his  master's  letters  legibly  on  tho 
table,  and  fell  to  his  posture  of  attention,  alert  on  stiff  legs, 
the  hands  like  sucking-cubs  at  play  with  one  another. 

Skepsey  waited  for  Mr.  Ffenellan  to  notice  him. 

"Huw  about  the  Schools  for  Boxing?"  that  gentleman 
said. 

Deploring  in  motion  the  announcement  he  had  to  make, 
Skepsey  replied:  "I  have  a  difficulty  in  getting  the  plan 
treated  seriously  : — a  person  of  no  station  : — it  does  not 
appear  of  national  importance.  Ladies  are  against.  They 
decline  their  signatures;  and  ladies  have  great  influence; 
because  of  the  blood ;  which  we  know  is  very  slight,  rather 
healthy  than  not ;  and  it  could  be  proved  for  the  advantage 
of  the  frailer  sex.  They  seem  to  be  unaware  of  their  own 
interests — ladies.  The  contention  all  around  us  is  with 
ignorance.  My  plan  is  written ;  I  have  shown  it,  and  sig- 
natures of  gentlemen,  to  many  of  our  City  notables— favour- 
able in  most  cases  :  gentlemen  of  the  Stock  Exchange  highly. 
The  clergy  and  the  medical  profession  are  quite  with  me." 

"  The  surgical,  perhaps  you  mean  ?  " 

"Also,  sir.     The  clergy  strongly." 

*'  On  the  grounds  of — what,  Skepsey?" 

*'  Morality.  I  have  fully  explained  to  them  : — after  his 
work  at  the  desk  all  day,  the  young  City  clerk  wants 
refreshment.  He  needs  it,  must  have  it.  I  propose  to  catch 
him. on  his  way  to  his  music-halls  and  other  places,  and  take 
him  to  one  of  our  establishments.  A  short  term  of  instruc- 
tion, and  he  would  find  a  pleasure  in  the  gloves ;  it  would 
delight  him  more  than  excesses — beer  and  tobacco.  The 
female  in  her  right  place,  certainly."  Skepsey  supplicated 
honest  interpretation  of  his  hearer,  and  pursued :  "  It  would 


22  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

improve  his  physical  strength,  at  the  same  time  add  to  his 
sense  of  personal  dignity." 

"  Would  you  teach  females  as  well — to  divert  them  from 
their  frivolities  ?  " 

"  That  would  have  to  be  thought  over,  sir.  It  would  be 
better  for  them  than  using  their  nails." 

"  I  don't  know,  Skepsey :  I'm  rather  a  Conservative 
there." 

"  Yes ;  with  regard  to  the  female,  sir :  I  confess,  my  scheme 
does  not  include  them.  They  dance ;  that  is  a  healthy 
exercise.  One  has  only  to  say,  that  it  does  not  add  to  the 
national  force,  in  case  of  emergency.  I  look  to  that.  And 
I  am  particular  in  proposing  an  exercise  independent  of — I 
have  to  say — sex.  Not  that  there  is  harm  in  sex.  But  we 
are  for  training.     I  hope  my  meaning  is  clear?  " 

"  Quite.  You  would  have  boxing  with  the  gloves  to  be  a 
kind  of  monastic  recreation." 

"  Ke creation  is  the  word,  sir ;  I  have  often  admired  it," 
said  Skepsey,  blinking,  unsure  of  the  signification  of 
monastic. 

"I  was  a  bit  of  a  boxer  once,"  Mr.  Fenellan  said,  conscious 
of  height  alnd  breadth  in  measuring  the  wisp  of  a  figure 
before  him. 

*'  Something  might  be  done  with  you  still,  sir." 

Skepsey  paid  him  the  encomium  after  a  respectful  sum- 
mary of  his  gifts  in  a  glimpse.     Mr.  Fenellan  bowed  to  him. 

Mr.  Radnor  raised  head  from  the  notes  he  was  pencilling 
upon  letters  perused. 

44  Skepsey's  craze :  regeneration  of  the  English  race  by 
boxing — nucleus  of  a  national  army  ?  " 

44  To  face  an  enemy  at  close  quarters — it  teaches  that,  sir. 
I  have  always  been  of  opinion,  that  courage  may  be  taught. 
I  do  not  say  heroism.  And  setting  aside  for  a  moment 
thoughts  of  an  army,  we  create  more  valuable  citizens. 
Protection  to  the  weak  in  streets  and  by-places : — shocking 
examples  of  ruffians  maltreating  women,  in  view  of  a  crowd/' 

"  One  strong  man  is  an  overmatch  for  your  mob,"  said  Mr. 
Fenellan. 

Skepsey  toned  his  assent  to  the  diminishing  thinness 
where  a  suspicion  of  the  negative  begins  to  wind  upon  a 
distant  horn. 

"Knowing  his  own  intentions;    and  before   an  ignorant 


THE    SECOND    BOTTLE.  23 

mob: — strong,  yon  say,  sir?  I  venture  my  word  that  a 
decent  lad,  with  science,  would  beat  him.  It  is  a  question 
of  the  study  and  practice  of  first  principles." 

"If  you  were  to  see  a  rascal  giant  mishandling  a 
woman  ?  " 

Skopsey  conjured  the  scene  by  bending  his  head  and  peer- 
ing abstractedly,  as  if  over  spectacles. 

"  I  would  beg  him  to  abstain,  for  his  own  sake." 

Mr.  Fenellan  knew  that  the  little  fellow  was  not  boasting. 

"  My  brother  Dartrey  had  a  lesson  or  two  from  you  in  the 
first  principles,  I  think?  " 

"  Captain  Dartrey  is  an  athlete,  sir  :  exceedingly  quick  and 
clever;  a  hard  boxer  to  beat." 

"  You  will  not  call  him  captain  when  you  see  him ;  he  has 
dismissed  the  army." 

"  I  much  regret  it,  sir,  much,  that  we  have  lost  him. 
Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan  was  a  beautiful  fencer.  He  gave 
me  some  instruction;  unhappily,  I  have  to  acknowledge, 
too  late.  It  is  a  beautiful  art.  Captain  Dartrey  says,  the 
French  excel  at  it.  But  it  asks  for  a  weapon,  which  nature 
has  not  given  :  'whereas  the  fists  .  .  ." 

"  So,"  Mr.  Eadnor  handed  notes  and  papers  to  Skepsey  : 
"No  sign  of  life?" 

"  It  is  not  yet  seen  in  the  City,  sir." 

•*  The  first  principles  of  commercial  activity  have  retreated 
to  earth's  maziest  penetralia,  where  no  tides  are ! — is  it  not 
so,  Skepsey  ?  "  said  Mr.  Fenellan,  whose  initiative  and  exu- 
berance in  loquency  had  been  restrained  by  a  slight  oppres- 
sion, known  to  guests ;  especially  to  the  guest  in  the  earlier 
process  of  his  magnification  and  illumination  by  virtue  of  a 
grand  old  wine ;  and  also  when  the  news  he  has  to  com- 
municate may  be  a  stir  to  unpleasant  heaps.  The  shining 
lips  and  eyes  of  his  florid,  face  now  proclaimed  speech,  with 
his  Puckish  fancy  jack-o'-lanterning  over  it.  "  Business 
hangs  to  swing  at  every  City  door,  like  a  rag-shop  Doll,  on 
the  gallows  of  overproduction.  Stocks  and  Shares  aru 
hollow  nuts  not  a  squirrel  of  the  lot  would  stop  to  crack  for 
sight  of  the  milky  kernel  mouldered  to  beard.  Percentage, 
like  a  cabman  without  a  fare,  has  gone  to  sleep  inside 
his  vehicle.  Dividend  may  just  be  seen  by  tiptoe  stock- 
holders, twinkling  heels  over  the  far  horizon.  Too  true ! — 
»nd   our  merchants,   brokers,    bankers,    projectors    of   Com- 


24  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

panies,  parade  our  City  to  remind  us  of  the  poor  steamed 
fellows  trooping  out  of  the  burst- boiler-room  of  the  big  ship 
Leviathan,  in  old  years  ;  a  shade  or  two  paler  than  the  crowd 
o'  the  passengers,  apparently  alive  and  conversible,  but 
corpses,  all  of  them  to  lie  their  length  in  fifteen  minutes." 

"  And  yon,  Fenellan  ? "  cried  his  host,  inspired  for  a 
second  bottle  by  the  lovely  nonsense  of  a  voluble  friend 
wound  up  to  the  mark. 

"Doctor  of  the  ship!  with  this  prescription ! "  Mr.  Fenellan 
held  up  his  glass. 

"  Empty  ?  " 

Mr.  Fenellan  made  it  completely  so.  "  Confident ! "  he 
affirmed. 

An  order  was  tossed  to  the  waiter,  and  both  gentlemen 
screwed  their  lips  in  relish  of  his  heavy  consent  to  score  off 
another  bottle  from  the  narrow  list. 

"  At  the  office  in  forty  minutes,"  Skepsey's  master  nodded 
to  him  and  shot  him  forth,  calling  him  back :  "  By  the  way, 
in  case  a  man  named  J  ami  man  should  ask  to  see  me,  you 
turn  him  to  the  rightabout." 

Skepsey  repeated  :  "  Jarniman  !  "  and  flew. 

44 A  good  servant,"  Mr.  Radnor  said.  "Few  of  us  think 
of  our  country  so  much,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  specific 
he  offers.  Colney  has  impressed  him  somehow  immensely : 
he  studies  to  write  too ;  pushes  to  improve  himself;  altogether 
a  worthy  creature." 

The  second  bottle  appeared.  The  waiter,  in  sincerity  a 
reluctant  executioner,  heightened  his  part  for  the  edification 
of  the  admiring  couple. 

"  Take  heart,  Benjamin,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan  ;  "  it's  only  the 
bottle  dies ;  and  we  are  the  angels  above  to  receive  the  spirit." 

"  I'm  thinking  of  the  house,"  Benjamin  replied.  He  told 
them  that  again. 

"  It's  the  loss  of  the  fame  of  having  the'  wine,  that  he 
mourns.  But,  Benjamin,"  said  Mr.  Fenellan,  "the  fame 
enters  into  the  partakers  of  it,  and  we  spread  it,  and  per- 
petuate it  for  you." 

"  That  don't  keep  a  house  upright,"  returned  Benjamin. 

Mr.  Fenellan  murmured  to  himself :  "  True  enough,  it's 
elegy,  though  we  perform  it  through  a  trumpet;  and  there's 
not  a  doubt  of  our  being  down  or  having  knocked  the  world 
down,  if  we're  loudly  praised." 


THE    SECOND   BOTTLE.  25 

Benjamin  waited  to  hear  approval  sounded  on  the  lips: 
uncertain  as  a  woman  is  a  wine  of  ticklish  age.  The  gentle- 
men nodded,  and  he  retired. 

A  second  bottle,  just  as  good  as  1he  first,  should,  one 
thoughtlessly  supposes,  procure  us  a  similar  reposeful  and 
excursive  enjoyment,  as  of  men  lying  on  their  backs  and 
flying  imagination  like  a  kite.  The  effect  was  quite  other, 
Mr.  Eadnor  drank  hastily  and  spoke  with  heat :  "  You  told 
me  all  ?  tell  me  that !  " 

Mr.  Fenellan  gathered  himself  together;  he  sipped,  and 
relaxed  his  bracing.  But  there  really  was  a  bit  more  to 
tell:  not  much,  was  it?  Not  likely  to  puff  a  gale  on  the 
voluptuous  indolence  of  a  man  drawn  along  by  Nereids  over 
sunny  sea- waves  to  behold  the  birth  of  the  Foam-Goddess? 
"  According  to  Carling,  her  lawyer ;  that  is,  he  hints  she 
meditates  a  blow." 

"  Mrs.  Burman  means  to  strike  a  blow  ?  " 

"  The  lady." 

"  Does  he  think  I  fear  any — does  he  mean  a  blow  with  a 
weapon  ?     Is  it  a  legal  .  .  .  ?     At  last  ?     Fenellan  I  " 

"  So  I  fancied  I  understood." 

"But  can  the  good  woman  dream  of  that  as  a  blow  to 
strike  and  hurt,  for  a  punishment  ? — that's  her  one  aim." 

"  She  may  have  her  hallucinations." 

"  But  a  blow — what  a  word  for  it !  But  it's  life  to  us  f 
life  !  It's  the  blow  we've  prayed  for.  Why,  you  know  it ! 
Let  her  strike,  we  bless  her.  We've  never  had  an  ill  feeling 
to  the  woman;  utterly  the  contrary — pity,  pity,  pity  !  Let 
her  do  that,  we're  at  her  feet,  my  Nataly  and  I.  If  you 
knew  what  my  poor  girl  suffers  !  She's  a  saint  at  the  stake. 
Chiefly  on  behalf  of  her  family.  Fenellan,  you  may  have  a 
sort  of  guess  at  my  fortune  :  I'll  own  to  luck ;  I  put  in  a 
claim  to  courage  and  calculation  .  .  ." 

"  You've  been  a  bulwark  to  your  friends." 

"All,  Fenellan,  all — stocks,  shares,  mines,  companies,  in- 
dustries at  home  and  abroad — all,  at  a  sweep,  to  have  the 
woman  strike  that  blow  !  Cheerfully  would  I  begin  to  build 
a  fortune  over  again — singing !  Ha !  the  woman  has 
threatened  it  before.     It's  probably  feline  play  with  us." 

His  chin  took  support,  he  frowned. 

*'  You  may  have  touched  her." 

"  She  won't  be  touched,  and  she  won't  be  driven.     What's 


26  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

the  secret  of  her?  I  can't  guess,  I  never  could.  She's  a 
riddle." 

"  Eiddles  with  wigs  and  false  teeth  have  to  be  taken  and 
shaken  for  the  ardently  sought  secret  to  reveal  itself,"  said 
Mr.  Fenellan. 

His  picture,  with  the  skeleton  issue  of  any  shaking,  smote 
Mr.  Radnor's  eyes,  they  turned  over.  "  Oh  ! — her  charms  ! 
She  had  a  desperate  belief  in  her  beauty.  The  woman's 
undoubtedly  charitable ;  she's  not  without  a  mind — sort  of 
mind  :  well,  it  shows  no  crack  till  it's  put  to  use.  Heart ! 
yes,  against  me  she  has  plenty  of  it.  They  say  she  used  to 
be  courted;  she  talked  of  it:  'my  courtiers,  Mr.  Victor!' 
There,  heaven  forgive  me,  I  wouldn't  mock  at  her  to  another." 

"It  looks  as  if  she  were  only  inexorably  human,"  said 
Mr.  Fenellan,  crushing  a  delicious  gulp  of  the  wine,  that 
foamed  along  the  channel  to  flavour.  "We  read  of  the 
tester  of  a  bandit-bed ;  and  it  flattened  unwary  recum bents 
to  pancakes.  An  escape  from  the  like  of  that  seems  plead- 
able, should  be:  none  but  the  drowsy  would  fail  to  jump 
out  and  run,  or  the  insane." 

Mr.  Radnor  was  taken  with  the  illustration  of  his  case. 
"  For  the  sake  of  my  sanity,  it  was  !  to  preserve  my  .  .  .  but 
any  word  makes  nonsense  of  it.  Could — I  must  ask  you  — 
could  any  sane  man — you  were  abroad  in  those  days,  horrible 
days !  and  never  met  her :  I  say,  could  you  consent  to  be 
tied — I  admit  the  vow,  ceremony,  so  forth — tied  to — 1  was 
barely  twenty-one :  I  put  it  to  you,  Fenellan,  was  it  in 
reason  an  engagement — which  is,  I  take  it,  a  mutual  plight 
of  faith,  in  good  faith ;  that  is,  with  capacity  on  both  sides 
to  keep  the  engagement :  between  the  man  you  know  I  was 
in  youth  and  a  more  than  middle-aged  woman  crazy  up  to 
the  edge  of  the  cliff" — as  Colney  says  half  the  world  is,  and 
she  positively  is  when  her  spite  is  roused.  No,  Fenellan, 
I  have  nothing  on  my  conscience  with  regard  to  the  woman. 
She  had  wealth  :  I  left  her  not  one  penny  the  worse  for — but 
she  was  not  one  to  reckon  it,  I  own.  She  could  be  generous, 
was,  with  her  money.  If  she  had  struck  this  blow — I  know- 
she  thought  of  it :  or  if  she  would  strike  it  now,  I  could  not 
only  forgive  her,  I  could  beg  forgiveness." 

A  sight  of  that  extremity  fetched  prickles  to  his  forehead. 

"  You've  borne  your  part  bravely,  my  friend." 

"  I !  "     Mr.  Radnor  shrugged  at  mention  of  his  personal 


THE    SECOND   BOTTLE.  27 

burdens.  •*  Praise  my  Nataly  if  yon  like !  Made  for  one 
another,  if  ever  two  in  this  world  !  You  know  us  both,  and 
do  you  doubt  it  ?  The  sin  would  have  been  for  us  two  to 
meet  and — but  enough  when  I  say,  that  I  am  she,  she  me, 
till  death  and  beyond  it :  that's  my  firm  faith.  Nataly 
teaches  me  the  religion  of  life,  and  you  may  learn  what  that 
is  when  you  fall  in  love  with  a  woman.  Eighteen — nineteen 
— twenty  years  !  " 

Tears  fell  from  him,  two  drops.  He  blinked,  bugled  in 
his  throat,  eyed  his  watch,  and  smiled  :  "  The  finishing 
glass!  We  should  have  had  to  put  Colney  to  bed.  Few 
men  stand  their  wine.  You  and  I  are  not  lamed  by  it ;  we 
can  drink  and  do  business :  my  first  experience  in  the  City 
was,  that  the  power  to  drink — keeping  a  sound  head — con- 
duces to  the  doing  of  business." 

"  It's  a  pleasant  way  of  instructing  men  to  submit  to  their 
conqueror." 

"If  it  doubles  the  energies,  mind." 

"Not  if  it  fiddles  inside.  I  confess  to  that  effect  upon 
me.  I've  a  waltz  going  on,  like  the  snake  with  the  tail  in 
his  mouth,  eternal;  and  it  won't  allow  of  a  thought  upon 
Investments." 

"Consult  me  to-morrow,"  said  Mr.  Radnor,  somewhat  pained 
for  having  inconsiderately  misled  the  man  he  had  hitherto 
helpfully  guided.     "  You've  looked  at  the  warehouse  ?  " 

"  That's  performed." 

"  Make  a  practice  of  getting  over  as  much  of  your  business 
in  the  early  morning  as  you  well  can." 

Mr.  Radnor  added  hints  of  advice  to  a  frail  humanity :  lie 
was  indulgent,  the  giant  spoke  in  good  fellowship.  It  would 
have  been  to  have  strained  his  meaning,  for  purposes  of 
sarcasm  upon  him,  if  one  had  taken  him  to  boast  of  a  personal 
exemption  from  our  common  weakness. 

He  stopped,  and  laughed  :  "  Now  I'm  pumping  my  pulpit 
— eh  ?  You  come  with  us  to  Lakelands.  I  drive  the  ladies 
down  to  my  office,  ten  a.m.  :  if  it's  fine ;  train  half-past.  We 
take  a  basket.  By  the  way,  I  had  no  letter  from  Dartrey 
last  mail." 

"  He  has  buried  his  wife.     It  Happens  to  some  men." 

Mr.  Radnor  stood  gazing.  He  asked  for  the  name  of  the 
place  of  the  burial.  He  heard  without  seizing  it.  A  simula- 
crum spectre-spark  of  hopefulness  shot  up  in  his  imagination, 


28  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

glowed  and  quivered,  darkening  at  the  utterance  of  the 
Dutch  syllables,  leaving  a  tinge  of  witless  envy.  Dartrey 
Fenellan  had  buried  the  wife  whose  behaviour  vexed  and 
dishonoured  him:  and  it  was  in  Africa!  One  would  have 
to  go  to  Africa  to  be  free  of  the  galling.  But  Dartrey  had 
gone,  and  he  was  free! — The  strange  faint  freaks  of  our 
sensations  when  struck  to  leap  and  throw  off  their  load  after 
a  long  affliction,  play  these  disorderly  pranks  on  the  brain  ; 
and  they  are  faint,  but  they  come  in  numbers,  they  are 
recurring,  always  in  ambush.  We  do  not  speak  of  them : 
we  have  not  words  to  stamp  the  indefinite  things ;  generally 
we  should  leave  them  unspoken  if  we  had  the  words;  we 
know  them  as  out  of  reason :  they  haunt  us,  pluck  at  us, 
fret  us,  nevertheless. 

Dartrey  free,  he  was  relieved  of  the  murderous  drama 
incessantly  in  the  mind  of  shackled  men. 

It  seemed  like  one  of  the  miracles  of  a  divine  intervention, 
that  Dartrey  should  be  free,  suddenly  free ;  and  free  while 
still  a  youngish  man.  He  was  in  himself  a  wonderful  fellow, 
the  pick  of  his  country  for  vigour,  gallantry,  trustiness, 
high-mindedness ;  his  heavenly  good  fortune  decked  him  as 
a  prodigy. 

"No  harm  to  the  head  from  that  fall  of  yours?"  Mr. 
Fenellan  said. 

"  None."  Mr.  Eadnor  withdrew  his  hand  from  head  to 
hat,  clapped  it  on  and  cried  cheerily  :  "  Now  to  business ; " 
as  men  may,  who  have  confidence  in  their  ability  to  con- 
centrate an  instant  attention  upon  the  substantial.  "  You 
dine  with  us.  The  usual  Quartet:  Peridon,  Pempton,  Col- 
noy,  Yatt,  or  Catkin  :  Priscilla  Graves  and  Nataly :  the  Eev. 
Septimus;  Cormyn  and  his  wife:  Young  Dudley  Sowerby 
and  I — flutes  :  he  has  precision,  as  naughty  Fredi  said,  when 
some  one  spoke  of  expression.  In  the  course  of  the  evening, 
Lady  Grace,  perhaps  :  you  like  her." 

"  Human  nature  in  the  upper  circle  is  particularly  like- 
able." 

"  Fenellan,"  said  Mr.  Eadnor,  emboldened  to  judge  hope- 
fully of  his  fortunes  by  mere  pressure  of  the  thought  of 
Dartrey 's,  "  I  put  it  to  you :  would  you  say,  that  there  is 
anything  this  time  behind  your  friend  Calling's  report  ?  " 

Although  it  had  not  been  phrased  as  a  report,  Mr.  Fenel- 
lan's  answering  look  and  gesture,  and  a  run  of  indiscriminate 


THE    SECOND    BOTTLE.  29 

words,  enrolled  it  in  that  form,  greatly  to  the  inspiriting  of 
Mr.  Eadnor. 

Old  Veuve  in  one,  to  the  soul  of  Old  Veuve  in  the  other, 
they  recalled  a  past  day  or  two,  touched  the  skies ;  and 
merriment  or  happiness  in  the  times  behind  them  held  a 
mirror  to  the  present :  or  the  hour  of  the  reverse  of  happi- 
ness worked  the  same  effect  by  contrast :  so  that  notions  of 
the  singular  election  of  us  by  Dame  Fortune,  sprang  like 
vinous  bubbles.  For  it  is  written  that,  however  powerful 
3-ou  be,  you  shall  not  take  the  Winegod  on  board  to  enter- 
tain him  as  a  simple  passenger ;  an$  you  may  captain  your 
vessel,  you  may  pilot  it,  and  keep  to  your  reckonings,  and 
steer  for  all  the  ports  you  have  a  mind  to,  even  to  doing 
profitable  exchange  with  Armenian  and  Jew,  and  still  you 
shall  do  the  something  more,  which  proves  that  the  Winegod 
is  on  board  :  he  is  the  pilot  of  your  blood  if  not  the  captain 
of  your  thoughts. 

Mr.  Fenellan  was  unused  to  the  copious  outpouring  of 
Victor  Radnor's  confidences  upon  his  domestic  affairs ;  and 
the  unwonted  excitement  of  Victor's  manner  of  speech  would 
have  perplexed  him,  had  there  not  been  such  a  fiddling  of 
the  waltz  inside  him. 

Payment  for  the  turtle  and  the  bottles  of  Old  Veuve  was 
performed  apart  with  Benjamin,  while  rfimeon  Fenellan 
strolled  out  of  the  house,  questioning  a  tumbled  mind  as  to 
what  description  of  suitable  entertainment,  which  would 
oe  dancing  and  flirting  and  fal-lallery  in  the  season  of  youth, 
London  City  could  provide  near  meridian  hours  for  a  man 
of  middle  age  carrying  his  bottle  of  champagne,  like  a  guest 
of  an  old-fashioned  wedding-breakfast.  For  although  he 
could  stand  his  wine  as  well  as  his  friend,  his  friend's  potent 
capacity  martially  after  the  fe  1st  to  buckle  to  business  at  a 
sign  of  the  clock,  was  beyond  him.  It  pointed  to  one  of  the 
embodied  elements,  hot  from  Nature's  workshop.  It  told  of 
the  endurance  of  powers,  that  partly  explained  the  successful, 
astonishing  career  of  his  friend  among  a  people  making 
urgent,  if  unequal,  demands  perpetually  upon  stomach  and 
head. 


30  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   LONDON   WALK   WESTWARD. 

In  that  nationally  interesting  Poem,  or  Dramatic  Satire, 
once  famous,  The  Rajah  in  London  (London,  Limbo  and 
-Sons,  1889),  now  obliterated  under  the  long  wash  of  Prt-ss- 
matter,  the  reflection — not  unknown  to  philosophical  ob- 
servers, and  natural  perhaps  in  the  mind  of  an  Oriental 
Prince — produced  by  his  observation  of  the  march  of  London 
citizens  Eastward  at  morn,  Westward  at  eve,  attributes  their 
practice  to  a  survival  of  the  Zoruastrian  form  of  worship. 
His  Minister,  favourable  to  the  people  or  for  the  sake  of 
fostering  an  idea  in  his  Master's  head,  remarks,  that  they 
show  more  than  the  fidelity  of  the  sunflower  to  her  God. 
The  Rajah,  it  would  appear,  frowns  interrogatively,  in  the 
princely  fashion,  accusing  him  of  obscureness  of  speech  : — 
princes  and  the  louder  members  of  the  grey  -public  are 
fraternally  instant  to  spurn  at  the  whip  of  that  which  they 
do  not  immediately  comprehend.  It  is  explained  by  the 
Minister  :  not  even  the  flower,  he  says,  would  hold  constant, 
as  they,  to  the  constantly  unseen  — a  trebly  cataphractic 
Invisible.  The  Rajah  proiesses  curiosity  to  know  how  it  is 
that  the  singular  people  nourish  their  loyalty,  since  they 
cannot  attest  to  the  continued  being  of  the  object  in  which 
they  put  their  faith.  He  is  informed  by  his  prostrate  servant 
of  a  settled  habit  they  have  of  diligently  seeking  their 
Divinity,  hidden  above,  below;  and  of  copiously  taking 
inside  them  doses  of  what  is  denied  to  their  external  vision  : 
thus  they  fortify  credence  chemically  on  an  abundance  of 
meats  and  liquors ;  fire  they  eat,  and  they  drink  fire ;  they 
become  consequently  instinct  with  fire.  Necessarily  there- 
fore they  believe  in  fire.  Believing,  they  worship.  Wor- 
ship] »ing,  they  march  Eastward  at  morn,  Westward  at  eve. 
For  that  way  lies  the  key,  this  way  the  cupboard,  of  the 
supplies,  their  fuel. 

According  to  Stage  directions,  The  Rajah  and  his 
Minister  Enter  a  Gin-Palace.  It  is  to  witness  a  service  that 
they  have  learnt  to  appreciate  as  Anglicanly  religious. 

On  the  step  of  the  return   to  their  Indiaa   clime,  they 


THE   LONDON   WALK   WESTWARD.  81 

speak  of  the  hatted  sect,  which  is  most,  or  most  commercially, 
succoured  and  fattened  by  our  rule  there :  they  wave  adieu 
to  the  conquering  Islanders,  as  to  "  Parsees  beneath  a  cloud." 

The  two  are  seen  last  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel,  in  perusal 
of  a  medical  pamphlet  composed  of  statistics  and  sketches, 
traceries,  horrid  blots,  diagrams  with  numbers  referring  to 
notes,  of  the  various  maladies  caused  by  the  prolonged  pro- 
secution of  that  form  of  worship. 

"But  can  they  suffer  so  and  live?"  exclaims  the  Eajah, 
vexed  by  the  physical  sympathetic  twinges  which  set  him 
wincing. 

**  Science,"  his  Minister  answers,  "  took  them  up  where 
Nature,  in  pity  of  their  martyrdom,  dropped  them.  They  do 
not  live ;  they  are  engines,  insensible  things  of  repairs  and 
patches ;  insteamed  to  pursue  their  infuriate  course,  to  the 
one  end  of  exhausting  supplies  for  the  renewing  of  them,  on 
peril  of  an  instant  suspension  if  they  deviate  a  step  or  stop : 
nor  do  they." 

The  Eajah  is  of  opinion,  that  he  sails  home  with  the  key 
of  the  riddle  of  their  power  to  vanquish.  In  some  apparent 
allusion  to  an  Indian  story  of  a  married  couple  who  success- 
fully made  their  way,  he  accounts  for  their  solid  and  resistless 
advance,  resembling  that  of — 

The  doubly-wedded  man  and  wife, 
Pledged  to  each  other  and  against  the  world* 
With  mutual  onion. 

One  would  like  to  think  of  the  lengthened  tide-flux  of 
pedestrian  citizens  iac.ng  South-westward,  as  being  drawn 
by  devout  attraction  to  our  nourishing  luminary :  at  the 
hour,  mark,  when  the  Norland  cloud-king,  after  a  day  of 
wild  invasion,  sits  him  on  his  restful  bank  of  blueish  smack- 
o'-cheek  red  above  Whitechapel,  to  spy  where  his  last  puff 
of  icy  javelins  pierces  and  dismembers  the  vapoury  masses  in 
cluster  about  the  circle  of  flame  descending  upon  the  greatest 
and  most  elevated  of  Admirals  at  the  head  of  the  Strand, 
with  illumination  of  smoke-plumed  chimneys,  house-roofs, 
window-panes,  weather-vanes,  monument  and  pedimental 
monsters,  and  omnibus-umbrella.  One  would  fain  believe 
that  they  advance  admiring;  they  are  assuredly  made  hand- 
some by  the  beams.  No  longer  mere  concurrent  atoms  of  the 
furnace  of  business  (from  coal-dust  to  sparks,  rushing,  as  it 


82  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

were,  on  respiratory  blasts  of  an  enormous  engine's  centripetal 
and  centrifugal  energy),  their  step  is  leisurely  to  meet  the 
rosy  Dinner,  which,  is  ever  at  see-saw  with  the  God  of  Light 
in  his  fall ;  the  mask  of  the  noble  human  visage  upon  thern 
is  not  roughened,  as  at  midday,  by  those  knotted  hard  ridges 
of  the  scrambler's  hand  seen  from  forehead  down  to  jaw ; 
when  indeed  they  have  all  the  appearance  of  sour  scientific 
productions.  And  unhappily  for  the  national  portrait,  in 
the  Poem  quoted,  the  Rajah's  Minister  chose  an  hour  between 
morning  and  meridian,  or  at  least  before  an  astonished 
luncheon  had  come  to  composure  inside  their  persons,  for 
drawing  his  Master's  attention  to  the  quaint  similarity  of 
feature  in  the  units  of  the  busy  antish  congregates  they  had 
travelled  so  far  to  visit  and  to  study : 

These  Britons  wear 
I     The  driven  and  perplexed  look  of  men 
I      Begotten  hastily  'ticixt  business  hours. 

It  could  not  have  been  late  afternoon. 

These  Orientals  should  have  seen  them,  with  Victor  Radnor 
among  them,  fronting  the  smoky  splendours  of  the  sunset. 
In  April,  the  month  of  piled  and  hurried  cloud,  it  is  a  Rape 
of  the  Sabines  overhead  from  all  quarters,  either  one  of  the 
winds  brawnily  larcenous ;  and  London,  smoking  royally  to 
the  open  skies,  builds  images  of  a  dusty  epic  fray  for 
possession  of  the  portly  dames.  There  is  immensity,  swing- 
ing motion,  collision,  dusky  richness  of  colouring,  to"  the 
sight;  and  to  the  mind  idea.  London  presents  it.  If  we 
can  allow  ourselves  a  moment  for  not  inquiring  scrupulously 
(you  will  do  it  by  inhaling  the  aroma  of  the  ripe  kitchen 
hour),  here  is  a  noble  harmony  of  heaven  and  the  earth  of 
the  works  of  man,  speaking  a  grander  tongue  than  barren 
sea  or  wood  or  wilderness.  Just  a  moment ;  it  goes ;  as, 
when  a  well-attuned  barrel-organ  in  a  street  has  drawn  us 
to  recollection's  of  the  Opera  or  Italy,  another  harshly  crashes, 
and  the  postman  knocks  at  doors,  and  perchance  a  coster- 
monger  cries  his  mash  of  fruit,  a  beggarwoman  wails  her 
hymn.  For  the  pinched  are  here,  the  dinnerless,  the  weedy, 
the  gutter-growths,  the  forces  repressing  them.  That  grand 
tongue  of  the  giant,  City  inspires  none  human  to  Bardic 
eulogy  while  we  let  those  discords  be.  An  embittered  Muse 
of  Reason  prompts  her  victims  to  the  composition  of  the 


THE   LONDON   WALK  WESTWAED.  83 

adulatory  Essay  and  of  the  Leading  Article,  that  she  may 
satiate  an  angry  irony  upon  those  who  pay  fee  for  their 
filling  with  the  stuff.  Song  of  praise  she  does  not  permit. 
A  moment  of  satisfaction  in  a  striking  picture  is  accorded, 
and  no  more.  For  this  London,  this  England,  Europe,  world, 
but  especially  this  London,  is  rather  a  thing  for  hospital 
operations  than  for  poetic  rhapsody ;  in  aspect,  too,  streaked 
scarlet  and  pock-pitted  under  the  most  cumbrous  of  jewelled 
tiaras ;  a  Titanic  work  of  long-tolerated  pygmies ;  of  whom 
the  leaders,  until  sorely  discomforted  in  body  and  doubtful 
in  soul,  will  give  gold  and  labour,  will  impose  restrictions 
upon  activity,  to  maintain  a  conservatism  of  diseases.  Mind 
is  absent,  or  somewhere  so  low  down  beneath  material 
accumulations  that  it  is  inexpressive,  powerless  to  drive  the 
ponderous  bulk  to  such  excisings,  purgeings,  purifyings  as 
might — as  may,  we  will  suppose,  render  it  acceptable,  for  a 
theme  of  panegyric,  to  the  Muse  of  Keason;  ultimately, 
with  her  consent,  to  the  Spirit  of  Song. 

But  first  there  must  be  the  cleansing.  When  Night  has 
fallen  upon  London,  the  Rajah  remarks : 

Monogamic  Societies  present 

A  decent  visage  and  a  hideous  rear. 

His  Minister  (satirically,  or  in  sympathetic  Conservatism) 
would  have  thern  not  to  move  on,  that  they  may  preserve 
among  beholders  the  impression  of  their  handsome  frontage. 
Night,  however,  will  come;  and  they,  adoring  the  decent 
face,  are  moved  on,  made  to  expose  what  the  Eajah  sees. 
Behind  his  courteousness,  he  is  an  antagonistic  observer  of 
his  conquerors;  he  pushes  his  questions  farther  than  the 
need  for  them;  his  Minister  the  same;  apparently  to  retain 
the  discountenanced  people  in  their  state  of  exposure.  Up 
to  the  time  of  the  explanation  of  the  puzzle  on  board  the 
departing  vessel  (on  the  road  to  Windsor,  at  the  Premier's 
reception,  in  the  cell  of  the  Police,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Magistrate — whose  crack  of  a  totally  inverse  decision  upon 
their  case,  when  he  becomes  acquainted  with  the  titles  and 
station  of  these  imputedly  peccant,  refreshes  them),  they 
hold  debates  over  the  mysterious  contrarieties  of  a  people 
professing  in  one  street  what  they  confound  in  the  next,  and 
practising  by  day  a  demureness  that  yells  with  the  cat  of 
ehe  tiles  at  night. 


34  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

Granting  all  that,  it  being  a  transient  novelist's  business 
to  please  the  light-winged  hosts  which  live  for  the  hour,  and 
give  him  his  only  chance  of  half  of  it,  let  him  identify  him- 
self with  them,  in  keeping  to  the  quadrille  on  the  surface 
and  shirking  the  disagreeable. 

Clouds  of  high  colour  above  London  City  are  as  the  light 
of  the  Goddess  to  lift  the  angry  heroic  head  over  human. 
They  gloriously  transfigure.  A  Murillo  beggar  is  not  more 
precious  than  sight  of  London  in  any  of  the  streets  admitting 
coloured  cloud-scenes;  the  cunning  of  the  sun's  hand  so 
speaks  to  us.  And  if  haply  down  an  alley  some  olive 
mechanic  of  street-organs  has  quickened  little  children's  legs 
to  rhythmic  footing,  they  strike  on  thoughts  braver  than 
pastoral.  Victor  Kadnor,  lover  of  the  country  though  he 
was,  would  have  been  the  first  to  say  it.  He  would  indeed 
have  said  it  too  emphatically.  Open  London  as  a  theme,  to 
a  citizen  of  London  aident  for  the  clear  air  out  of  it,  you 
have  roused  an  orator;  you  have  certainly  fired  a  magazine, 
and  must  listen  to  his  reminiscences  of  one  of  its  paragraphs 
or  pages. 

The  figures  of  the  hurtled  fair  ones  in  sky  were  wreathing 
Nelson's  cocked  hat  when  Victor,  distinguishably  bright- 
faced  amid  a  crowd  of  the  irradiated,  emerged  from  the  tide- 
way to  cross  the  square,  having  thoughts  upon  Art,  which 
were  due  rather  to  the  suggestive  proximity  of  the  National 
Gallery  than  to  the  Flemish  mouldings  of  cloud-forms  under 
Venetian  brushes.  His  purchases  of  pictures  had  been  his 
unhappiest  ventures.  He  had  relied  and  reposed  on  the 
dicta  of  newspaper  critics;  who  are  sometimes  unanimous, 
and  are  then  taken  for  guides,  and  are  fatal.  He  was  led  to 
the  conclusion  that  our  modern-lauded  pictures  do  not  ripen. 
They  have  a  chance  of  it,  if  abused.  But  who  thinks  of 
buying  the  abused?  Exalted  by  the  critics  they  have, 
during  the  days  of  Exhibition,  a  glow,  a  significance  or  a 
fun,  abandoning  them  where  examination  is  close  and  con- 
stant, and  the  critic's  trumpet-note  dispersed  to  the  thinness 
of  the  fee  for  his  blowing.  As  to  foreign  pictures,  classic 
pictures.  Victor  had  known  his  purse  to  leap  for  a  Raphael 
with  a  history  in  stages  of  descent  from  the  Master,  and 
critics  to  swarm :  a  Kaphael  of  the  dealers,  exposed  to  be 
condemned  by  the  critics,  universally  derided.  A  rea) 
Kaphael  in  your  house  is  aristocracy  to  the  roof-tree.     Bu* 


THE   LONDON   WALK   WESTWARD.  85 

the  wealthy  trader  will  reach  to  title  "before  he  may  hope  to 
get  the  real  Eaphael  or  a  Titian.  Yet  he  is  the  one  who 
would,  it  may  be,  after  enjoyment  of  his  prize,  bequeath  it 
to  the  nation : — Presented  to  the  Nation  by  Victor  Mont- 
gomery Eadnor.  There  stood  the  letters  in  gilt;  and  he  had 
a  thrill  of  his  generosity ;  for  few  were  the  generous  acts  he 
could  not  perform ;  and  if  an  object  haunted  the  deed,  iv 
came  of  his  trader's  habit  of  mind. 

He  revelled  in  benevolent  projects  of  gifts  to  the  nation, 
which  would  coat  a  sensitive  name.  Say,  an  ornamental 
City  Square,  flowers,  fountains,  afternoon  bands  of  music : 
comfortable  seats  in  it,  and  a  shelter,  and  a  ready  supply  of 
good  cheap  coffee  or  tea.  Tobacco  ?  why  not  rolls  of  honest 
tobacco !  nothing  so  much  soothes  the  labourer.  A  volume 
of  plans  for  the  benefit  of  London  smoked  out  of  each  ascend- 
ing pile  in  his  brain.  London  is  at  night  a  moaning  outcast 
round  the  policeman's  legs.  What  of  an  all-night-long,  cosy, 
brightly-lighted,  odoriferous  coffee-saloon  for  rich  or  poor, 
on  the  model  of  the  hospitable  Paduan?  Owner  of  a  penny, 
no  soul  among  us  shall  be  rightly  an  outcast.  .  .  . 

Dreams  of  this  kind  are  taken  at  times  by  wealthy  people 
as  a  cordial  at  the  bar  of  benevolent  intentions.  But  Victor 
was  not  the  man  to  steal  his  refreshments  in  that  known 
style.  He  meant  to  make  deeds  of  them,  as  far  as  he  could, 
considering  their  immense  extension  ;  and  except  for  the 
sensitive  social  name,  he  was  of  single-minded  purpose. 

Turning  to  the  steps  of  a  chemist's  shop  to  get  a  prescrip- 
tion made  up  for  his  Nataly's  doctoring  of  her  lomestics,  he 
was  arrested  by  a  rap  on  his  elbow;  and  no  one  was  near; 
and  there  could  not  be  a  doubt  of  the  blow — a  sharp  hard 
stroke,  sparing  the  funny-bone,  but  ringing.  His  head,  at 
the  punctilio  bump,  throbbed  responsively :  owing  to  which 
or  indifference  to  the  prescription,  as  of  no  instant  require- 
ment, he  pursued  his  course,  resembling  mentally  the 
wanderer  along  a  misty  beach,  who  hears  cannon  across  the 
waters. 

He  certainly  had  felt  it.  He  remembered  the  shock  :  he 
could  not  remember  much  of  pain.  How  about  intimations? 
His  asking  caused  a  smile. 

Very  soon  the  riddle  answered  itself.  He  had  come  into 
view  of  the  diminutive  marble  cavalier  of  the  infantile 
cerebellum;  recollecting  a  couplet  from  the  pen  of  the  dis- 


36  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

respectful  Satirist  Peter,  he  thought  of  a  fall :  his  head  and 
his  elbow  responded  simultaneously  to  the  thought. 

All  was  explained  save  his  consequent  rightabout  from  the 
chemist's  shop  :  and  that  belongs  to  the  minor  involutions  of 
circumstances  and  the  will.  It  passed  like  a  river's  wrinkle. 
He  read  the  placards  of  the  Opera,  reminding  himself  of  the 
day  when  it  was  the  single  Opera-house;  and  now  we  have 
two — or  three.  We  have  also  a  distracting  couple  ol 
Clowns  and  Pantaloons  in  our  Pantomimes  :  though  Colney 
says  that  the  multiplication  of  the  pantaloon  is  a  distinct 
advance  to  representative  truth — and  bother  Colney  !  Two 
Columbines  also.  We  forbear  to  speak  of  men,  but  where 
is  the  boy  who  can  set  his  young  heart  upon  two 
Columbines  at  once !  Victor  felt  the  boy  within  him  cold 
to  both :  and  in  his  youth  he  had  doated  on  the  solitary 
twirling  spangled  lovely  Fairy.  The  tale  of  a  delicate 
lady  dancer  leaping  as  the  kernel  ont  of  a  nut  from  the 
arms  of  Harlequin  to  the  legalized  embrace  of  a  wealthy 
brewer,  and  thenceforth  living,  by  repute,  with  unagitated 
legs,  as  holy  a  matron,  despite  her  starry  past,  as  any  to  be 
shown  in  a  country  breeding  the  like  abundantly,  had 
always  delighted  him.  It  seemed  a  reconcilement  of  opposing 
stations,  a  defeat  of  Puritanism.  Ay,  and  poor  women  ! — 
women  in  the  worser  plight  under  the  Puritan's  eye.  They 
may  be  erring  and  good  :  yes,  finding  the  man  to  lift  them 
the  one  step  up !  Eead  the  history  of  the  error.  But 
presently  we  shall  teach  the  Puritan  to  act  by  the  standards 
of  his  religion.  All  is  coming  right — must  come  right. 
Colney  shall  be  confounded. 

Hereupon  Victor  hopped  on  to  Fenellan's  hint  regarding 
the  designs  of  "  Mrs.  Burman." 

His  Nataly  might  have  to  go  through  a  short  sharp  term 
of  scorching — Godiva  to  the  gossips. 

She  would  come  out  of  it  glorified.  She  would  be  recon- 
ciled with  her  family.  With  her  story  of  her  devotion  to 
the  man  loving  her,  the  world  would  know  her  for  the 
heroine  she  was  :  a  born  lady,  in  appearance  and  manner  an 
empress  among  women.  It  was  a  story  to  be  pleaded  in  any 
court,  before  the  sternest  public.  Mrs.  Burman  had  thrown 
her  into  temptation's  way.  It  was  a  story  to  touch  the  heart, 
as  none  other  ever  written.  Not  over  all  the  earth  was  there 
a  woman  equalling  his  Nataly  I 


THE   LONDON   WALK   WESTWARD.  87 

And  their  Nesta  would  have  a  dowry  to  make  princesses 
envious:  —  she  would  inherit  ...  he  ran  up  an  arithmetical 
column,  down  to  a  line  of  figures  in  addition,  during  three 
paces  of  his  feet.  Dartrey  Fenellan  had  said  of  little  Nesta 
once,  that  she  had  a  nature  pure  and  sparkling  as  mid-sea 
foam.  Happy  he  who  wins  her  !  But  she  was  one  of  the 
young  women  who  are  easily  pleased  and  hardly  enthralled. 
Her  father  strained  his  mind  for  the  shape  of  the  man  10 
accomplish  the  feat.  Whether  she  had  an  ideal  of  a  youth 
in  her  feminine  head,  was  beyond  his  guessing.  She  was 
not  the  damsel  to  weave  a  fairy  waistcoat  for  the  identical 
prince,  and  try  it  upon  all  comers  to  discover  him  :  as  is 
done  by  some ;  excusably,  if  we  would  be  just.  Nesta  was 
of  the  elect,  for  whom  excuses  have  not  to  be  made.  She 
would  probablv  like  a  flute-player  best;  because  her  father 
played  the  flute,  and  she  loved  him — laughably  a  little 
maiden's  reason  !     Her  father  laughed  at  her. 

Along  the  street  of  Clubs,  where  a  bruised  fancy  may  see 
black  balls  raining,  the  narrow  way  between  ducal  mansions 
offers  prospect  of  the  sweep  of  greensward,  all  but  touching 
up  to  the  sunset  to  draw  it  to  the  dance. 

•Formerly,  in  his  very  early  youth,  he  clasped  a  dre^m  of 
gaining  way  to  an  alliance  with  one  of  these  great  surround- 
ing houses ;  and  he  had  a  passion  for  the  acquisition  of  money 
as  a  means.  And  it  has  to  be  confessed,  he  had  sacrificed  in 
youth,  a  slice  of  his  youth,  to  gain  it  without  labour — usually 
a  costly  purchase.  It  had  ended  disastrously :  or  say,  a 
running  of  the  engine  off  the  rails,  and  a  speedy  re-establish- 
ment of  traffic.  Could  it  be  a  loss,  that  had  led  to  the 
winning  of  his  Nataly  ?  Can  we  really  loathe  the  first  of  the 
steps  when  the  one  in  due  sequence,  cousin  to  it,  is  a  blessed- 
ness ?  If  we  have  been  righted  to  health  by  a  medical 
draught,  we  are  bound  to  be  respectful  to  our  drug.  And  so 
we  are,  in  spite  of  Nature's  wry  face  and  shiver  at  a  mention 
of  what  we  went  through  during  those  days,  those  horrible 
days  : — hide  them  ! 

The  smothering  of  them  from  sight  set  them  sounding: 
he  had  to  listen.  Coiney  Durance  accused  him  of  entering 
into  bonds  with  Somebody's  grandmother  for  the  simple  sake 
of  browsing  on  her  thousands :  a  picture  of  himself  too 
abhorrent  to  Victor  to  permit  of  any  sort  of  acceptance. 
Consequently  he  struck  a  vay  t<    the  other  extreme  of  those 


88  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

who  have  a  choice  in  mixed  motives :  he  protested  that 
compassion  had  been  the  cause  of  it.  Looking  at  the  circum- 
stance now,  he  could  see,  allowing  for  human  frailty— perhaps 
a  wish  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  wealthy — compassion  for  the 
woman  as  the  principal  motive.  How  often  had  she  not  in 
those  old  days  praised  his  generosity  for  allying  his  golden 
youth  to  her  withered  age — Mrs.  Burman's  very  words! 
And  she  was  a  generous  woman — or  had  been:  she  was 
generous  in  saying  that.  Well,  and  she  was  generous 
in  having  a  well-born  well-bred  beautiful  young  creature 
like  Nataly  for  her  companion,  when  it  was  a  case 
of  need  for  the  dear  girl;  and  compassionately  insisting, 
against  remonstrances  : — they  were  spoken  by  him,  though 
they  were  but  partial.  How,  then,  had  she  become — at 
least,  how  was  it  that  she  could  continue  to  behave  as  the 
vindictive  Fury  who  persecuted  remorseless^,  would  give 
no  peace,  poisoned  the  wells  round  every  place  where  he  and 
his  dear  one  pitched  their  tent ! 

But  at  last  she  had  come  to  charity,  as  he  could  well 
believe.  Not  too  late  !  Victor's  feeling  of  gratitude  to 
Mrs.  Burman  assured  him  it  was  genuine  because  of  his 
genuine  conviction,  that  she  had  determined  to  end  her  incom- 
prehensibly lengthened  days  in  reconcilement  with  him  :  and 
he  had  always  been  ready  to  '  forget  and  forgive.'  A  truly 
beautiful  old  phrase !  It  thrilled  one  of  the  most  susceptible 
of  men. 

His  well-kept  secret  of  the  spacious  country-house  danced 
him  behind  a  sober  demeanour  from  one  park  to  another; 
and  along  beside  the  drive  to  view  of  his  town-house — unbe- 
loved  of  the  inhabitants,  although  by  acknowledgment  it  had, 
as  Fredi  funnily  drawled,  to  express  her  sense  of  justice  in 
depreciation,  *  good  accommoda'ion.'  Nataly  was  at  homo, 
he  was  sure.  Time  to  be  dressing  :  sun  sets  at  six-forty,  he 
said,  and  glanced  at  the  stained  West,  with  an  accompanying 
vision  of  outspread  primroses  flooding  banks  of  shadowy  fields 
near  Lakelands. 

He  crossed  the  road  and  rang. 

Upon  the  opening  of  the  door,  there  was  a  cascade  of 
muslin  downstairs.  His  darling  Fredi  stood  out  cf  it,  a 
dramatic  Undine. 


(     39    ) 
CHAPTER  VL 

NATALY. 

"  II  segreto !  "  the  girl  cried  commandingly,  with  a  forefinger 
at  his  breast. 

He  crossed  arms,  toning  in  similar  recitative,  with  anguish, 
**  Dove  vol  are  !  " 

They  joined  in  half  a  dozen  bars  of  operatic  duet. 

She  flew  to  him,  embraced  and  kissed. 

"I  must  have  it,  my  papa  !  unlock.  I've  been  spying  the 
bird  o  i  its  hedgerow  nest  so  long !  And  this  morning,  my 
own  d^ar  cunning  papa,  weren't  you  as  bare  as  winter  twigs? 
*  To-morrow  perhaps  we  will  have  a  day  in  the  country.' 
To  go  and  see  the  npst  ?  Only,  please,  not  a  big  one.  A 
real  nest -where  mama  and  I  can  wear  dairymaid's  hat  and 
apron  all  day — the  style  you  like  ;  and  strike  roots.  We've 
been  torn  away  two  or  three  times  :  twice,  I  know." 

"  Fixed,  this  time ;  nothing  shall  tear  us  1  p  "  said  her 
father,  moving  on  to  the  stairs,  with  an  arm  about  her. 

" So,  it  is?  .  .  ." 

"  She's  amazed  at  her  cleverness  !  " 

"A  nest  for  three?" 

"  We  must  have  a  friend  or  two." 

"  And  pretty  country  ?  " 

"  Trust  her  papa  for  that." 

"  Nice  for  walking  and  running  over  fields  ?  No  rich 
people  ?  " 

. "  How  escape  that  rabble  in  England  !  as  Colney  says. 
It's  a  place  for  being  quite  independent  of  neighbours,  free 
as  air." 

"Oh!  bravo!" 

"  And  Fredi  will  have  her  horse,  and  mama  her  pony- 
carriage;  and  Fredi  can  have  a  swim  every  Summer  morning." 

"  A  swim  ?  "     Her  note  was  dubious.     "  A  river  ?  " 

"A  good  long  stretch — fairish,  fairish.  Bit  of  a  lake; 
bathing-shed  ;  the  Naiad\s  bower  :  pretty  water  to  see." 

"  Ah.     And  has  the  house  a  name  ?  " 

"  Lakelands.     I  like  the  name." 

"  Papa  gave  it  the  name  !  " 


40  ONE    OP    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  There's  nothing  he  can  conceal  from  his  girl.  Only  now 
and  then  a  little  surprise." 

•'  And  his  girl  is  off  her  head  with  astonishment.  But  tell 
me,  who  has  been  sharing  the  secret  with  you  ?  " 

"  Fredi  strikes  home  !  And  it  is  true,  you  dear;  1  must 
have  a  confidant :  Simeon  Fenellan." 

"Not  Mr.  Durance  ?" 

He  shook  out  a  positive  negative.  "  I  leave  Colney  to  his 
guesses.  He'd  have  been  prophesying  fire  to  the  works 
before  the  completion." 

"  Then  it  is  not  a  dear  old  house,  like  Crave  and  Creek- 
holt?" 

"  Wait  and  see  to-morrow." 

He  spoke  of  the  customary  guests  for  Concert  practice; 
the  mu;«ic,  instrumental  and  vocal;  quartet,  duet,  solo;  and 
advising  the  girl  to  be  quick,  as  she  had  but  twenty-five 
minutes,  he  went  humming  and  trilling  into  his  dressing- 
room. 

Nesta  signalled  at  her  mother's  door  for  permission  to 
enter.  She  slipped  in,  saw  that  the  maid  was  absent,  and 
said  :   "  Yes,  mama  ;  and  prepa.i  e,  I  feared  it ;  I  was  sure." 

Her  mother  breathed  a  little  moan  :  •*  Not  a  cottage  ?" 

"  He  has  not  mentioned  it  to  Mr.  Durance." 

"Why  not?" 

"  Mr.  Fenellan  has  been  his  confidant." 

"  My  darling,  we  did  wrong  to  let  it  go  on,  without  speak- 
ing.    You  don't  know  for  certain  yet?" 

"  It's  a  large  estate,  mama,  and  a  big  new  house." 

Nataly's  bosom  sank.  "  Ah  me  !  here's  misery  !  I  ought 
to  have  known.  And  too  late -now  it  has  gone  so  far  !  But 
I  never  imagined  he  would  be  building." 

She  caught  herself  languishing  at  her  toilette-glass,  as  if 
her  beauty  were  at  stake  ;  and  shut  her  eyelids  angrily. 
To  be  looking  in  that  manner,  for  a  mere  suspicion,  was  too 
foolish.  But  Nesta's  divinations  were  target-arrows ;  they 
flew  to  the  mark.  Could  it  have  been  expected  that  Victor 
would  ever  do  anything  on  a  small  scale?  0  the  dear  little 
lost  lost  cottage  !  She  thought  of  it  with  a  strain  of  the 
arms  of  womanhood's  longing  in  the  unblessed  wife  for  a 
babe.  For  the  secluded  modest  cottage  would  not  rack  her 
with  the  old  anxieties,  beset  her  with  suspicions.  .  .  . 

44  My    child,  you    won't   possibly   have   time   before   the 


NATALY.  41 

dinner-hour,"  she  said  to  Nesta,  dismissing  her  and  taking 
her  kiss  of  comfort  with  a  short  and  straining  look  out  of 
the  depths. 

Those  bitter  doubts  of  the  sentiments  of  neighbours  are 
an  incipient  dislike,  when  one's  own  feelings  to  the  neigh- 
bours are  kind,  could  be  affectionate.  We  are  distracted, 
perverted,  made  strangers  to  ourselves  by  a  false  position. 

She  heard  his  voice  on  a  carol.  Men  do  not  feel  this 
doubtful  position  as  women  must.  They  have  not  the  same 
to  endure;  the  world  gives  them  land  to  tread,  where  women 
are  on  breaking  seas.  Her  Nesta  knew  no  more  than  the 
pain  of  being  torn  from  a  home  she  loved.  But  now  the  girl 
was  older,  and  if  once  she  had  her  imagination  awakened, 
her  fearful  directness  would  touch  the  spot,  question,  bring 
on  the  scene  to-come,  necessarily  to-come,  dreaded  much 
more  than  death  by  her  mother.  But  if  it  might  be  post- 
poned till  the  girl  was  nean  r  to  an  age  of  grave  understand- 
ing, with  some  knowledge  of  our  world,  some  comprehension 
of  a  case  that  could  be  pleaded  ! — 

He  sang  :  he  never  acknowledged  a  trouble,  he  dispersed 
it ;  and  in  her  present  wrestle  with  the  scheme  of  a  large 
country  estate  involving  new  intimacies,  anxieties,  the  court- 
ship of  rival  magnates,  followed  by  the  wretched  old  cloud, 
and  the  imposition  upon  them  to  bear  it  in  silence  though 
they  knew  they  could  plead  a  case,  at  least  before  charitable 
and  discerning  creatures  or  before  heaven,  the  despondent 
lady  could  have  asked  whether  he  was  perfectly  sane. 

Who  half  so  brilliantly  ! — Depreciation  of  him,  fetched  up 
at  a  stroke  the  glittering  armies  of  her  enthusiasm. — He  had 
proved  it ;  he  proved  it  daily  in  conflicts  and  in  victories  that 
dwarfed  emotional  troubles  like  hers :  yet  they  were  some- 
thing to  bear,  hard  to  bear,  at  times  unbearable. 

But  those  were  times  of  weakness.  Let  anything  be 
doubted  rather  than  the  good  guidance  of  the  man  who  was 
her  breath  of  life!  Wi.ither  he  led,  let  her  go,  not  only 
submi-sively,  exultingly. 

Thus  she  thought,  under  pressure  of  the  knowledge  that, 
unless  rushing  into  conflicts  bigger  than  conceivable,  she 
had  to  do  it,  and  should  therefore  think  it. 

This  was  the  prudent  woman's  clear  deduction  from  the 
state  wherein  she  found  herself,  created  by  the  one  first  great 
step  of  the   mad   woman.     Her  surrender   then   might   bo 


42  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

likened  to  the  detachment  of  a  flower  on  the  river's  hank  hy 
swell  of  flood  :  she  had  no  longer  root  of  her  own  ;  away  she 
sailed,  through  beautiful  scenery,  with  occasionally  a  crash- 
ing fall,  a  turmoil,  emergence  from  a  vortex,  and  once  more 
the  sunny  whirling  surface.  Strange  to  think,  she  had  not 
since  then  power  to  grasp  in  her  abstract  mind  a  notion  of 
stedfastness  without  or  within. 

But,  say  not  the  mad,  say  the  enamoured  woman.  Love 
is  a  madness,  having  heaven's  wisdom  in  it — a  spark.  But 
even  when  it  is  driving  us  on  the  breakers,  call  it  love :  and 
be  not  unworthy  of  it,  hold  to  it.  She  and  Victor  had  drunk 
of  a  cup.  The  philtre  was  in  her  veins,  whatever  the  direc- 
tions of  the  rational  mind. 

Exulting  or  regretting,  she  had  to  do  it,  as  one  in  the  car 
with  a  racing  charioteer.  Or  up  beside  a  more  than  Titani- 
cally  audacious  balloonist.  Fur  the  charioteer  is  bent  on  a 
goal ;  and  Victor's  course  was  an  ascension  from  heights  to 
heights.  He  had  ideas,  he  mastered  Fortune.  He  con- 
quered Nataly  and  held  her  subject,  in  being  above  his 
ambition  ;  which  was  now  but  an  occupation  for  his  powers, 
while  the  aim  of  his  life  was  at  the  giving  and  taking  of 
simple  enjoyment.  In  spite  of  his  fits  of  unreasonableness 
in  the  means — and  the  woman  loving  him  could  trace  them 
to  a  breadth  of  nature — his  gentle  good  friendly  innocent 
aim  in  life  was  of  this  very  simplest ;  so  wonderful,  by  con- 
trast with  his  powers,  that  she,  assured  of  it  as  she  was  by 
experience  of  him,  was  touched,  in  a  transfusion  of  her  feel- 
ings through  lucent  globes  of  admiration  and  of  tenderness, 
to  reverence.  There  had  been  occasions  when  her  wish  for 
the  whole  world  to  have  proof  and  exhibition  of  his  great- 
ness, goodness,  and  simplicity  amid  his  gifts,  prompted  her 
incitement  of  him  to  stand  forth  eminently  ('  lead  a  king- 
dom,' was  the  phrase  behind  the  curtain  within  her  shy 
bosom) ;  and  it  revealed  her  to  herself,  upon  reflection,  as 
being  still  the  Nataly  who  drank  the  cup  with  him,  to  join 
her  fate  with  his. 

And  why  not?  Was  that  regretted?  Far  from  it.  In 
her  maturity,  the  woman  was  unable  to  send  forth  any 
dwelling  thought  or  more  than  a  flight  of  twilight  fancy, 
that  cancelled  the  deed  of  her  youth,  and  therewith  seemed 
to  expunge  near  upon  the  half  of  her  term  of  years.  If  it 
came  to  consideration  of  her  family  and  the  family's  opinion 


NATALY.  45 

of  Tier  conduct,  her  judgement  did  not  side  with  them  or 
with  herself,  it  whirled,  swam  to  a  giddiness  and  subsided. 

Of  course,-  if  she  and  Victor  were  to  inhabit  a  large 
country-house,  they  might  as  well  have  remained  at  Craye 
Farm  or  at  Creckholt ;  both  places  dear  to  them  in  turn. 
Such  was  the  plain  sense  of  the  surface  question.  And  how 
etrange  it  was  to  her,  that  he,  of  the  most  quivering  sensi- 
tiveness on  her  behalf,  could  not  see,  that  he  threw  her  into 
situations  where  hard  words  of  men  and  women  threatened 
about  her  head;  where  one  or  two  might  on  a  day,  some  day, 
be  heard  ;  and  where,  in  the  recollection  of  two  years  back, 
the  word  '  Impostor '  had  smacked  her  on  both  cheeks  from 
her  own  mouth. 

Now  once  more  they  were  to  run  the  same  round  of 
alarms,  undergo  the  love  of  the  place,  with  perpetual  appre- 
hensions of  having  to  leave  it :  alarms,  throbbing  suspicions, 
like  those  of  old  travellers  through  the  haunted  forest,  where 
whispers  have  intensity  of  meaning,  and  unseeing  we  are 
seen,  and  unaware  awaited. 

Nataly  shook  the  rolls  of  her  thick  brown  hair  from  her 
forehead ;  she  took  strength  from  a  handsome  look  of  reso- 
lution in  the  glass.  She  could  always  honestly  say,  that  her 
courage  would  not  fail  him. 

"Victor  tapped  at  the  door;  he  stepped  into  the  room, 
wearing  his  evening  white  flower  over  a  more  open  white 
waistcoat ;  and  she  was  composed  and  uninquiring.  Their 
Nesta  was  heard  on  the  descent  of  the  stairs,  with  a  rattle  of 
Donizetti's  II  segreto  to  the  skylights. 

He  performed  his  never-omitted  lover's  homage. 

Nataly  enfolded  him  in  a  homely  smile.  "A  country- 
house  ?     We  go  and  see  it  to-morrow  ?  " 

"  And  you've  been  pining  for  a  country  home,  my  dear  soul.,, 

"  After  the  summer  six  weeks,  the  house  in  London  does 
not  seem  a  home  to  return  to." 

"  And  next  day,  Nataly  draws  five  thousand  pounds  for 
the  first  sketch  of  the  furniture." 

"  There  is  the  Creckholt  .  .  ."  she  had  a  difficulty  in 
saying;:. 

"  Part  of  it  may  do.  Lakelands  requires — but  you  will 
see  to-morrow." 

After  a  close  shutting  of  her  eyes,  she  rejoined :  "  It  is  net 
a  cottage  ?  " 


44  ONE   OP   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  Well,  dear,  no :  when  the  Slave  of  the  Lamp  takes  to 
building,  he  does  not  run  up  cottages.  And  we  did  it 
without  magic,  all  in  a  year;  which  is  quite  as  good  as 
a  magical  trick  in  a  night."  He  drew  her  close  to  him. 
**  When  was  it  my  dear  girl  guessed  me  at  work  ?  M 

'*  It  was  the  other  dear  girl.     Nesta  is  the  guessei." 

"  You  were  two  best  of  souls  to  keep  from  bothering  me  ; 
and  I  might  have  had  to  fib ;  and  we  neither  of  us  like  that." 
He  noticed  a  sidling  of  her  look.  "  More  than  the  circum- 
stances oblige : — to  be  frank.  But  now  we  can  speak  of 
them.  Wait — and  the  change  comes;  and  opportunely,  I 
have  found.  It's  true  we  have  waited  long  ;  my  darling  has 
had  her  worries.  However,  it's  here  at  last.  Prepare  your- 
self. I  speak  positively.  You  have  to  brace  up  for  one 
sharp  twitch — the  woman s  portion!  as  Natata  says — and  it's 
over."  He  looked  into  her  eyes  for  comprehension  ;  and  not 
finding  inquiry,  resumed :  "  Just  in  time  for  the  entry  into 
Lakelands.  With  the  pronouncement  of  the  decree,  we  pre- 
sent the  licence  .  ,\ .  at  an  altar  we've  stood  before,  in  spirit 
.  .  .  one  of  the  ladies  of  your  family  to  support  you  : — why 
not?     Not  even  then?" 

"  No,  Victor ;  they  have  cast  me  off." 

"Count  on  my  cousins,  the  Duvidney  ladies.  Then  we 
can  say,  that  those  two  good  old  spinsters  are  less  narrow 
than  the  Dreightons.  I  have  to  confess  I  rather  think  I  was 
to  blame  for  leaving  Creckholt.  Only,  if  I  see  my  girl 
wounded,  I  hate  the  place  that  did  the  mischief.  You  and 
Fredi  will  clap  hands  for  the  country  about  Lakelands." 

"Have  you  heard  from  her  ...  of  her  ...  is  it  any- 
thing, Victor?"  Nataly  asked  him  shyly  ;  with  not  much  of 
hope,  but  some  readiness  to  be  inflated.  The  prospect  of  an 
entry  into  the  big  new  house,  among  a  new  society,  "begirt 
by  the  old  nightmares  and  fretting  devils,  drew  her  into 
staring  daylight  or  furnace-light. 

He  answered:  "Mrs.  Burman  has  definitively  decided.  In 
pity  of  us  ? — to  be  free  herself? — who  can  say !  She's  a 
woman  with  a  conscience — of  a  kind  :  slow,  but  it  brings 
her  to  the  point  at  last.  You  know  her,  know  her  well. 
Fenellan  has  it  from  her  lawyer— her  lawyer !  a  Mr.  Car- 
ling  ;  a  thoroughly  trustworthy  man." 

"  Fenellan,  as  a  reporter  ?  " 

"  Thoroughly  to  be  trusted  on  serious  matters.     I  under- 


NATALY.  4(5 

stand  tliat  Mrs.  Biirman  : — her  health  is  awful :  yes,  yes ; 
jioor  woman!  poor  woman  !  we  feel  for  her: — she  has  come 
to  perceive  her  duty  to  those  she  leaves  behind.  Consider: 
she  has  used  the  rod.  She  must  be  tired  out — if  human. 
And  she  is.     One  remembers  traits." 

Victor  sketched  one  or  two  of  the  traits  allusively  to  the 
hearer  acquainted  with  them.  They  received  strong  colour- 
ing frcm  midday's  Old  Veuve  in  his  blood.  His  voice  and 
words  had  a  swing  of  conviction :  they  imparted  vinousness 
to  a  heart  athirst. 

The  histrionic  self-deceiver  may  be  a  persuasive  deceiver 
of  another,  who  is  again,  though  not  ignorant  of  his  cha- 
racter, tempted  to  swallow  the  nostrums  which  have  made 
so  gallant  a  man  of  him :  his  imperceptible  sensible  playing 
of  the  part,  on  a  substratum  of  sincereness,  induces  fasci- 
natingly to  the  like  performance  on  our  side,  that  we  may 
be  armed  as  he  is  for  enjoying  the  coveted  reality  through 
the  partial  simulation  of  possessing  it.  And  this  is  not  a 
task  to  us  when  we  have  looked  our  actor  in  the  lace,  and 
seen  him  bear  the  look,  knowing  that  he  is  not  intentionally 
•T«ntruthful ;  and  when  we  incline  to  be  captivated  by  his 
rare  theatrical  air  of  confidence;  when  it  seems  as  an  out- 
side thought  striking  us,  that  he  may  not  be  altogether 
deceived  in  the  pr<  sent  instance;  when  suddenly  an  expec- 
tation of  the  thing  desired  is  born  and  swims  in  a  credible 
featureless  vagueness  on  a  misty  scene  :  and  when  we  are 
being  kissed  and  the  blood  is  warmed.  In  fine,  here  as 
everywhere  along  our  history,  when  the  sensations  are 
spirited  up  to  drown  the  mind,  we  become  drift- matter  of 
tides,  metal  to  magnets.  And  if  we  are  women,  who  com- 
monly allow  the  lead  to  men,  getting  it  for  themselves  only 
by  snaky  cunning  or  desperate  adventure,  credulity — the 
continued  trust  in  the  man — is  the  alternative  of  despair. 

"  But,  Victor,  I  must  ask,"  Nataly  said  :  "  you  have  ifc 
through  Simeon  Fenellan ;  you  have  not  yourself  received 
the  letter  from  her  lawyer  ?  " 

"My  knowledge  of  what  she  would  do  near  the  grave  : — 
poor  soul,  yes  !     I  shall  soon  be  hearing." 

"  You  do  not  propose  to  enter  this  place  until — until  it  is 
over  ?  " 

"  We  enter  this  place,  my  love,  without  any  sort  of  cere- 
mony.    We  live  there  independently,  and  we  can :  we  have 


46  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

quarters  there  for  our  friends.  Our  one  neighbour  is  Lon- 
don— there !  And  at  Lakelands  we  are  able  to  entertain 
London  and  wife  ; — our  friends,  in  short;  with  some,  what 
we  have  to  call,  satellites.  You  inspect  the  house  and 
grounds  to-morrow— sure  to  be  fair.  Put  aside  all  but  the 
pleasant  recollections  of  Craye  and  Creckholt.  We  start  on 
a  different  footing.  Really  nothing  can  be  simpler.  Keeping 
your  town-house,  you  are  now  and  then  .in  residence  at 
Lakelands,  where  you  entertain  your  set,  teach  them  to  feel 
the  charm  of  country  life:  we  have  everything  about  us; 
could  have  had  our  own  milk  and  cream  up  to  London  the 
last  two  months.  Was  it  very  naughty  ? — I  should  have 
exploded  my  surprise!  You  will  bee,  you  will  see  to- 
morrow." 

Nataly  nodded,  as  required.  "Good  news  from  the 
mines  ?  "  she  said. 

He  answered  :  "  Dartrey  is — yes,  poor  fellow  ! — Dartrey 
is  confident,  from  the  yield  of  stones,  that  the  value  of  our 
claim  counts  in  a  number  of  millions.  The  same  with  the 
gold.     But  gold-mines  are  lodgeings,  not  homes." 

"Oh,  Victor!  if  money!  .  .  .  But  why  did  you  say  'poor 
fellow '  of  Dartrey  Fenellan  ?  " 

"  You  know  how  he's  .  .  ." 

"  Yes,  yes,"  she  said  hastily.  "  But  has  that  woman  been 
causing  fresh  anxiety?" 

u  And  Natata's  chief  hero  on  earth  is  not  to  be  named  a 
poor  fellow,"  said  he,  after  a  negative  of  the  head  on  a 
subject  they  neither  of  them  liked  to  touch. 

Then  he  remembered  that  Dartrey  Fenellan  was  actually 
a  lucky  fellow ;  and  he  would  have  mentioned  the  circum- 
stance confided  to  him  by  Simeon,  but  for  a  downright 
dread  of  renewing  his  painful  fit  of  envy.  He  had  also 
another,  more  dis  ant,  very  faint  idea,  that  it  had  better  not 
be  mentioned  just  yet,  foi-  a  reason  entirely  undefined. 

He  consulted  his  watch.  The  maid  had  come  in  for  the 
robeing  of  her  mistress.  Nataly 's  mind  had  turned  to  the 
little  country  cottage  which  would  have  given  her  such 
great  happiness,  i^he  raised  her  eyes  to  him;  she  could  not 
check  their  filling  ;  they  were  like  a  river  carrying  moonlight 
on  the  smooth  roll  of  a  fall. 

He  loved  the  eyes,  disliked  the  water  in  them.  With  an 
impatient,  "  There,  there  I "  and  a  smart  affectionate  look, 


THE    MAN    OF    THE    WORLD.  47 

he  retired,  thinking  in  our  old  satirical  vein  tf  the  hope- 
less endeavour  to  satisfy  a  woman's  mind  without  the  intru- 
sion of  hard  material  statements,  facts.  Even  the  best  of 
women,  even  the  most  beautiful,  and  in  their  moments  of 
supremest  beauty,  have  this  gross  ravenousness  for  facts. 
You  mu«t  not  expect  to  appease  them  unless  you  administer 
solids.  It  would  almost  appear  that  man  is  exclusively 
imaginative  and  poetical;  and  that  his  mate,  the  fair,  the 
graceful,  the  bewitching,  with  the  sweetest  and  purest  of 
natures,  cannot  help  being  something  of  a  groveller. 
Nataly  had  likewise  her  thoughts. 


CHAPTEE   Ylt. 

BETWEEN   A   GENERAL   MAN   OF   THE   WORLD   AND   A   PROFESSIONAL. 

Rather  earlier  in  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  Simeon  Fenellan, 
thinking  of  the  many  things  which  are  nothing,  and  sO 
melancholy  for  lack  of  amusements  properly  to  follow  Old 
Yeuve,  that  he  could  ask  himself  whether  he  had  not  done 
a  deed  of  night,  to  be  blinking  at  his  fellow-men  like  an  owl 
all  mad  for  the  reveller's  hoots  and  flights  and  mice  and 
moony  roundels  behind  his  hypocritical  judex  air  of  moping 
composure,  chanced  on  Mr.  Carling,  the  solicitor,  where 
Lincoln's  Inn  pumps  lawyers  into  Fleet  Street  through  the 
drain-pipe  of  Chancery  Lane.  He  was  in  the  state  of  the 
wine  when  a  shake  will  rouse  the  sluggish  sparkles  to  foam. 
Sight  of  Mrs.  Burman's  legal  adviser  had  instantly  this 
effect  upon  him:  his  bubbling  friendliness  for  Yictor  Radnor, 
and  the  desire  of  the  voice  in  his  bosom  for  ears  to  hear, 
combined  like  the  rush  of  two  waves  together,  upon  which 
he  may  be  figured  as  the  b<>at:  he  caught  at  Mr.  Carling's 
hand  more  heartily  than  their  acquaintanceship  quite  sanc- 
tioned ;  but  his  grasp  and  his  look  of  overflowing  were 
immediately  privileged  ;  Mr.  Calling,  enjoying  this  anecdotal 
gentleman's  conversation  as  he  did,  liked  the  warmth,  ai,d 
was  flattered  during  the  squeeze  with  a  prospect  of  his  wife- 
and  friends  partaking  of  the  fun  from  time  to  time. 

*'  I  was  telling  my  wife  yecterday  your  story  of  the  lady- 


48  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

contrabandist :  I  don't  think  she  has  done  laughing  since," 
Mr.  Carling  said. 

Fenellan  fluted:  "Ah?"  He  had  scent,  in  the  eulogy  of 
a  story  grown  fl;it  as  Election  hats,  of  a  good  sort  of  man  in 
the  way  of  men,  a  step  or  two  behind  the  man  of  the  world.' 
He  expressed  profound  regret  at  not  having  heard  the  silvery 
ring  of  the  lady's  laughter. 

Carling  genially  conceived  a  real  gratification  to  be 
conferred  on  his  wife.  "  Perhaps  you  will  some  day  honour 
us?" 

"  You  spread  gold-leaf  over  the  days  to  come,  sir." 

"  Now,  if  I  might  name  the  day  ?  " 

"  You  lump  the  gold  and  make  it  current  coin  ; — says  the 
blushing  bride,  who  ought  not  to  have  delivered  herself  so 
boldly,  but  she  had  forgotten  her  bashful  part  and  spoilt  the 
scene,  though,  luckily  for  the  damsel,  her  swain  was  a  lover 
of  nature,  and  finding  her  at  full  charge,  he  named  the  very 
next  day  of  the  year,  and  held  her  to  it,  like  the  compli- 
mentary tyrant  he  was." 

"  To-morrow,  then  !  "  said  Carling  intrepidly,  on  a  dash 
of  enthusiasm,  through  a  haggard  thought  of  his  wife  and 
the  cook  and  the  netting  of  friends  at  short  notice.  He 
urged  his  eagerness  to  ask  whether  he  might  indeed  have 
the  satisfaction  of  naming  to-morrow. 

"  With  happiness,"  Fenellan  responded. 

Mrs.  Carling  was  therefore  in  for  it. 

"  To-morrow,  half-past  seven  :  as  for  company  to  meet 
you,  we  will  do  what  we  can.     You  go  Westward?" 

"  To  bed  with  the  sun,"  said  the  reveller. 

"Perhaps  by  Covent  Garden?     I  must  give  orders  there." 

"  Orders  given  in  Covent  Garden,  paint  a  picture  for 
bachelors  of  the  domestic  Paradise  an  angel  must  help  them 
to  enter !  Ah,  dear  me  !  Is  there  anything  on  earth  to 
compare  with  the  pride  of  a  virtuous  life?  " 

"  I  was  married  at  four  and  twenty,"  said  Carling,  as  one 
taking  up  the  expository  second  verse  of  a  poem;  plain 
facts,  hut  weighty  and  necessary :  "  my  wife  was  in  her 
twentieth  year:  we  have  five  children;  two  sons,  three 
daughters,  one  married,  with  a  baby.  So  we  are  grandfather 
and  mother,  and  have  never  regretted  the  first  step,  I  may 
say  for  both  of  us." 

••Think   of  it!      Good   luck   and   sagacity  joined   hands 


THE   MAN   OP   THE   WORLD.  49 

overhead  on  the  day  you  proposed  to  the  lady :  and  I'd  say, 
that  all  the  credit  is  with  her,  but  that  it  would  seein  to 
be  at  the  expense  of  her  sex." 

"  She  would  be  the  last  to  wish  it.  I  assure  you." 

"  True  of  all  good  women !  You  encourage  me,  touching 
a  matter  of  deep  interest,  not  unknown  to  you.  The  lady's 
warm  heart  will  be  with  us.  Probably  she  sees  Mrs. 
Burman  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Burman  Radnor  receives  no  one." 

A  comic  severity  in  the  tone  of  the  correction  was  deferen- 
tially accepted  by  Fenellan. 

"  Pardon.  She  flies  her  flag,  with  her  captain  wanting  ; 
and  she  has,  queerly,  the  right.  So,  then,  the  worthy  dame 
who  receives  no  one,  might  be  treated,  it  struck  us,  con- 
versationally, as  a  respectable  harbour-hulk,  with  more 
history  than  top-honours.  But  she  has  the  indubitable  legal 
right  to  fly  them— to  proclaim  it ;  for  it  means  little  else." 

"  You  would  have  her,  if  I  follow  you,  divest  herself  of 
the  name  ?  " 

"  Pin  me  to  no  significations,  if  you  please,  0  shrewdest 
of  the  legal  sort !  I  have  wit  enough  to  escape  you  there. 
She  is  no  doubt  an  estimable  person." 

"  Well,  she  is ;  she  is  m  her  way  a  very  good  woman." 

"Ah.  You  see,  Mr.  Carling,  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
rank  her  beside  another  lady,  who  has  already  claimed  the 
title  of  me ;  and  you  will  forgive  me  if  I  say,  that  your 
word  '  good  '  has  a  look  of  being  stuck  upon  the  features  we 
know  of  her,  like  a  coquette's  naughty  patch  ;  or  it's  a  jewel 
of  an  eye  in  an  ebony  idol:  though  I've  heard  tell  she 
performs  her  charities." 

"  I  believe  she  gives  away  three  parts  of  her  income  :  and 
that  is  large." 

"Leaving  the  good  lady  a  fine  fat  fourth." 

"  Compare  her  with  other  wealthy  people." 

"And  does  she  outshine  the  majority  still  with  her 
personal  attractions  ?  " 

Carling  was  instigated  by  the  praise  he  had  bestowed  on 
his  wife  to  separate  himself  from  a  female  pretender  so 
ludicrous ;  he  sought  Fenellan's  nearest  ear,  emitting  the 
sound  of  'hum.' 

"  in  other  respects,  unimpeachable  J " 

"Oh!  quite!" 


50  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"There  was  a  fishfag  of  classic  Billingsgate,  who  had 
broken  her  husband's  nose  with  a  sledgehammer  fist,  and 
swore  before  the  magistrate,  tiiat  the  man  hadn't  a  crease  to 
complain  of  in  her  character.  We  are  condemned,  Mr. 
Carling,  sometimes  to  suffer  in  the  flesh  for  the  assurance 
we  receive  of  the  inviolability  of  those  moral  fortifications." 

"  Character,  yes,  valuable — I  do  wish  you  had  named 
to-night  for  doing  me  the  honour  of  dining  with  me ! "  said 
the  lawyer  impulsively,  in  a  rapture  of  the  appetite  for 
anecdotes-     "  I  have  a  ripe  Pichon  Longueville,  '65." 

"A  fine  wine.  Seductive  to  hear  of.  I  dine  with  my 
friendVictor  Radnor.  And  he  knows  wine. — There  are  good 
women  in  the  world,  Mr.  Carling,  whose  characters  .  .  ." 

"Of  course,  of  course  there  are;  and  I  could  name  you 
some.     We  law>  ers  !  .  .  ."  , 

"  You  encounter  all  sorts." 

"  Between  ourselves,"  Carling  sank  his  tones  to  the  in- 
discriminate, where  it  mingled  with  the  roar  of  London. 

"You  do?"  Fenellan  hazarded  a  guess  at  having  heard 
enlightened  liberal  opinions  regarding  the  sex.     "  Eight  1 " 

"  Many ! " 

"  I  back  you,  Mr.  Carling." 

The  lawyer  pushed  to  yet  more  confidential  communica- 
tion, up  to  the  verge  of  the  clearly  audible:  he  spoke  of 
examples,  experiences.     Fenellan  backed  him  further. 

"Acting  on  behalf  of  clients,  you  understand,  Mr. 
Fenellan." 

"  Professional,  but  charitable  ;  I  am  with  you." 

"  Poor  things  !  we — if  we  have  to  condemn — we  owe  them 
something." 

"  A  kind  word  for  poor  Polly  Yenus,  with  all  the  world 
against  her!     She  doesn't  hear  it  often." 

"  A  real  service,"  Calling's  voice  deepened  to  the  legal 
'  without  prejudice,' — "  1  am  bound  to  say  it — a  service  to 
Society." 

"  Ah,  poor  wench  I     And  the  kind  of  reward  g,he  gets  ?  " 

"We  can  hardly  examine  .  .  .  mysterious  dispensations 
.  .  .  here  we  are  to  make  the  best  we  can  of  it." 

"  For  the  creature  Society's  indebted  to  ?  True.  And  am 
I  to  think  there's  a  body  of  legal  gentlemen  to  join  with 
you,  my  friend,  in  founding  an  Institution  to  distribute 
funds  to   preach  charity  over   the  country,  and   win  com- 


THE    MAN    OP    THE    WORLD.  51 

passion  for  her,  as  one  of  the  principal  persons  of  her 
time,  that  Society's  indebted  to  for  whatever  it's  indebted 
for  ?  " 

"  Scarcely  that,"  said  Carling,  contracting. 

"  But  you're  for  great  Reforms  ?  " 

"  Gradual." 

"  Then  it's  for  Reformatories,  mayhap." 

"  They  would  hardly  be  a  cure." 

"  You're  in  search  of  a  cure  ?  " 

"  It  would  be  a  blessed  discovery." 

"  But  what's  to  become  of  Society  ?  " 

"  It's  a  puzzle  to  the  cleverest." 

"All  through  History,  my  dear  Mr.  Carling,  we  see  that 
Establishments  must  have  their  sacrifices.  Beware  of  inter 
fering :  eh  ?  " 

"  By  degrees,*we  may  hope  .  .  ." 

"Society  prudently  shuns  the  topic;  and  so*ll  we.  For 
we  might  tell  of  one  another,  in  a  tit  of  distraction,  that 
t'other  one  talked  of  it,  and  we  should  be  banished  for  an 
offence  against  propriety.  You  should  read  my  friend 
Durance's  Essay  on  Society.  Lawyers  are  a  buttress  of 
Society.  But,  come :  I  wager  they  don't  know  what  they 
support  until  they  read  that  Essay." 

Carling  had  a  pleasant  sense  of  escape,  in  not  being  per- 
sonally asked  to  read  the  Es^ay,  and  not  hearing  that  a  copy 
of  it  should  be  forwarded  to  him. 

He  said  :  '*  Mr.  Radnor  is  a  very  old  friend  ?  " 

"  Our  fathers  were  friends ;  they  served  in  the  same 
regiment  for  years.  I  was  in  India  when  Victor  Radnor 
took  the  fatal !  " 

"Followed  by  a  second,  not  less  .  .  .  ?" 

"  In  the  interpretation  of  a  rigid  morality  arming  you 
legal  gentlemen  to  make  it  so  !  " 

"  Tne  Law  must  be  vindicated." 

*'  The  law  is  a  clumsy  bludgeon." 

"We  think  it  the  highest  effort  of  human  reason — the 
practical  instrument." 

"You  may  compare  it  to  a  rustic's  finger  on  a  fiddle- 
string,  for  the  murdered  notes  you  get  out  of  the  practical 
instrument." 

"I  am  bound  to  defend  it,  clumsy  bludgeon  or  not." 

"You  are  one  of  the  giants  to  wield  it,  and  feel  humanly, 


52  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

when,  by  chance,  down  it  conies  on  the  foot  an  inch  off  the 
line. — Here's  a  peep  of  Old  London  ;  if  the  habit  of  old  was 
not  to  wash  windows.     1  like  these  old  streets." 

"Hum,"  Carling  hesitated.     "I  can  remember  when  the 
dirt  at  the  windows  was  appalling." 

"Appealing   to    the   same   kind   of  stuff  in  the   passing 
youngster's  green-scum  eye :  it  was.     And  there  your  Law- 
did  good  work. — You're  for  Bordeaux.     What  is  your  word 
on  Burgundy?" 
"  Our  Falernian  !  " 

*' Victor  Radnor  has  the  oldest  in  the  kingdom.  But  he 
will  have  the  best  of  everything.  A  Romance  !  A  Musigny  ! 
Sip,  my  friend,  yon  embrace  the  Goddess  of  your  choice 
above.  You  are  up  beside  her  at,  a  sniff  of  that  wine. — And 
lo,  venerable  Drury  !  we  duck  through  the  court,  reminded  a 
bit  by  our  feelings  of  our  first  love,  who  hadn't  the  cleanest* 
of  faces  or  nicest  of  manners,  but  she  takes  her  station  in 
memory  because  we  were  boys  then,  and  the  golden  halo  of 
youth  is  upon  her." 

Carling,  as  a  man  of  the  world,  acquiesced  in  souvenirs  he 
did  not  share.  He  said  urgently  :  "  Understand  me ;  you 
speak  of  Mr.  Radnor;  pray,  believe  I  have  the  greatest 
respect  for  Mr.  Radnor's  abilities.  He  is  one  of  our  foremost 
men  .  .  .  proud  of  him.  Mr.  Radnor  has  genius;  I  have 
watched  him ;  it  is  genius ;  he  shows  it  in  all  he  does ;  one 
of  the  memorable  men  of  our  time.  I  can  admire  him, 
independent  of — well,  misfortunes  of  that  kind  ...  a  mis- 
taken early  step.  Misfortune,  it  is  to  be  named.  Between 
ourselves — we  are  men  of  the  world — if  one  could  see  the 
way !  She  occasionally  .  .  .  as  I  have  told  you.  I  have 
ventured  suggestions.  As  I  have  mentioned,  I  have  received 
an  impression  .  .  ." 

*'  But  still,  Mr.  Carling,  if  the  lady  doesn't  release  him 
and  will  keep  his  name,  she  might  stop  her  cowardly  perse- 
cutions." 

"  Can  you  trace  them  ?  " 

•*  Undisguised ! " 

"Mrs.  Burmau  Radnor  is  devout.  I  should  not  exactly 
say  revengeful.  We  have  to  discriminate.  I  gather,  that 
her  animus  is,  in  all  honesty,  directed  at  tlje — 1  quote — state 
of  sin.     We  are  mixed  you  know." 

The  Winegod  in  the  blood  of  Fenellan  gave  a  leap.    "  But, 


THE    MAN    OF    THE    WORLD.  53 

fifty  thousand  times  more   mixed,   she  might  any  moment 
stop  the  slate  of  sin,  as  she  calls  it,  if  it  pleased  her." 

"She  might  try.  Our  Judges  look  suspiciously  on  long- 
delayed  actions.  And  there  are,  too,  w(omen  who  regard  the 
marriage-tie  as  indissoluble.  She  has  had  to  combat  that 
scruple." 

"  Believer  in  the  renewing  of  the  engagement  overhead  ! 
— well.  But  put  a  by- word  to  Mother  Nature  about  the 
state  of  sin.  Where,  do  you  imagine,  she  would  lay  it? 
You'll  say,  that  Nature  and  Law  never  agreed.  They 
ought." 

••  The  latter  deferring  to  the  former? " 

"  Moulding  itself  on  her  swelling  proportions.  My  dear 
dear  sir,  the  state  of  sin  was  the  continuing  to  live  in 
defiance  of,  in  contempt  of,  in  violation  of,  in  the  total 
degradation  of,  Nature." 

"He  was  under  no  enforcement  to  take  the  oath  at  the 
altar." 

"Ho  was  a  small  hoy  tempted  by  a  varnished  widow, 
with  pounds  of  barley-sugar  in  her  pocket; — and  she  already 
serving  as  a  test-vessel  or  mortar  fur  awful  combinations  in 
druggery !  Gilt  widows  are  equal  to  decrees  of  Fate  to  us 
young  ones.  Upon  my  word,  the  cleric  who  unites,  and  the 
Law  that  sanctions,  they're  the  criminals.  Victor  Radnor 
is  the  noblest  of  fellows,  the  very  best  friend  a  man  can 
have.  I  will  tell  you  :  he  saved  me,  after  I  left  the  army, 
from  living  on  the  produce  of  my  pen — which  means,  if 
there  is  to  be  any  produce,  the  prostrating  of  yourself  to  .the 
level  of  the  round  middle  of  the  public:  saved  me  from  that! 
Yes,  Mr  Carl  in  g,  I  have  trotted  our  thoroughfares  a  poor 
Polly  of  the  pen ;  and  it  is  owing  to  Victor  Radnor  that 
I  can  order  my  thoughts  as  an  individual  man  again  before 
I  blacken  paper.  Owing  to  him,  I  have  a  tenderness  for 
mercenaries;  having  been  one  of  them  and  knowing  how 
little  we  can  help  it.  He  is  an  Olympian — who  thinks  of 
them  below.  The  lady  also  is  an  admirable  woman  at  all 
points.  The  pair  are  a"  mated  couple,  such  as  you  won't  find 
in  ten  households  over  Christendom.  Are  you  aware  of  tne 
stury?" 

Carling  replied  :  "  A  story  under  shadow  of  the  Law,  has 
generally  two  very  distinct  versions." 

"He;tr  mine. — And,  by   Jove!    a  runaway  cab.     No,  all 


54  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

right.  But  a  crazy  cab  it  is,  and  fit  to  do  mischief  in  narrow 
Drury.     Except  that  it's  sheer  riff-raff  here  to  knock  over." 

"  Hulloa? — come !  "  quoth  the  wary  lawyer. 

"  There's  the  heart  I  wanted  to  rouse  to  hear  me  '(  One 
may  be  sure  that  the  man  for  old  Burgundy  has  it  big  and 
sound,  in  spite  of  his  legal  practices ;  a  dear  good  spherical 
fellow !  Some  day,  we'll  hope,  you  will  be  sitting  with  us 
over  a  magnum  of  Victor  Badnor's  Bomanee  Conti  aged 
thirty-one  :  a  wine,  you'll  say  at  the  second  glass,  High 
Briest  for  the  celebiation  of  the  uncommon  nuptials  between 
the  body  and  the  soul  of  man." 

"  You  hit  me  rightly,"  said  Carling,  tickled  and  touched ; 
sensually  excited  by  the  bouquet  of  Victor  Badnor's  hospi- 
tality and  companionship,  which  added  flavour  to  Fenellan's 
compliments.  These  came  home  to  him  through  his  desire 
to  be  the  •  good  spherical  fellow  ' ;  for  he,  like  modern  diplo- 
matists in  the  track  of  their  eminent  Berlinese  New  Type 
of  the  time,  put  on  frankness  as  an  armour  over  wariness, 
holding  craft  in  reserve :  his  aim  was  at  the  refreshment  of 
honest  fellowship:  by  no  means  to  discover  that  the  coupling 
of  his  native  bias  with  his  professional  duty  was  unprofitable 
nowadays.  "Wariness,  however,  was  not  somnolent,  even 
when  he  said :  "  You  know,  I  am  never  the  lawyer  out  of  my 
office.  Man  of  the  world  to  men  of  the  world ;  and  I  have 
not  lost  by  it.  I  am  Mrs.  Burman  Badnor's  legal  adviser  : 
you  are  Mr.  Victor  Badnor's  friend.  They  are,  as  we  see 
them,  not  on  the  best  of  terms.  1  would  lather — at  its  low- 
est, as  a  matter  of  business — be  known  for  having  helped 
them  to  some  kind  of  footing  than  send  in  a  round  bill  to 
my  client — or  another.  I  gain  more  in  the  end.  Frankly, 
I  mean  to  prove,  that  it's  a  lawyer's  interest  to  be  human." 

"  Because,  now,  see  ! "  said  Fenellan,  "  here's  the  case. 
Miss  Natalia  Dreighton,  of  a  good  Yorkshire  family— a  large 
one,  reads  an  advertisement  for  the  post  of  companion  to  a 
lady,  and  answers  it,  and  engages  herself,  previous  to  the 
appearance  of  the  young  husband.  Mi^s  Dreighton  is  one  of 
the  finest  young  women  alive.  She  has  a  glorious  contralto 
voice.  Victor  and  she  are  encouraged  by  Mrs.  Burman  to 
sing  duets  together.  Well?  Why,  Euclid  would  have 
theorem'd  it  out  for  you  at  a  glance  at  the  trio.  You  have 
only  to  look  on  them,  you  chatter  out  your  three  Acts  of  a 
Drama  without  a  stop.     If  Mrs.  Burman  cares  to  piactise 


THE    MAN    OF    THE    WORLD.  55 

charity,  she  has  only  to  hold  in  her  Fury- forked  tongue,  or 
her  Jarniman  I  think's  the  name  ..." 

Carl  in  g  shrugged. 

"  Let  her  keep  from  striking,  if  she's  Christian,"  pursued 
Fenellan,  "and  if  kind  let  her  resume  the  name  of  her  first 
lord,  who  did  a  better  thing  for  himself  than  for  her,  when 
he  shook  off  his  bars  of  bullion,  to  rise  the  lighter,  and  left  a 
wi etched  female  soul  below,  with  the  devil's  own  testimony 
to  her  attractions — thousands  in  the  Funds,  houses  in  the 
City.  She  threw  the  young  couple  together.  And  my  friend 
Victor  Kadnor  is  of  a  particularly  inflammable  nature. 
Imagine  one  of  us  in  such  a  situation,  Mr.  Carling! " 

**  Trying  I  "  said  the  lawyer. 

"  The  dear  felL»w  was  as  nigh  death  as  a  man  can  be  and 
know  the  sweetness  of  a  woman's  call  to  him  to  live. — And 
here's  London's  garden  of  pines,  bananas,  oranges;  all  the 
droppings  of  the  He^perides  here !  We  don't  reflect  on  it, 
Mr.  Carling." 

"Not  enough,  not  enough." 

*'  I  feel  such  a  spout  of  platitudes  that  I  could  out  with  a 
a  Leading  Article  on  a  sheet  of  paper  on  your  back  while 
you're  bending  over  the  baskets.  I  seem  to  have  got  cir- 
cularly round  again  to  Eden  when  I  enter  a  garden.  Only, 
here  we  have  to  pay  for  the  fruits  we  pluck.  Well,  and  just 
the  same  there ;  and  no  end  to  the  payment  either.  We're 
always  paying !  By  the  way,  Mrs.  Victor  Kadnor's  dinner- 
table's  a  spectacle.  *  Her  taste  in  flowers  equals  her  lord's  in 
wine.  But  age  improves  the  wine  and  spoils  the  flowers, 
you'll  say.  Maybe  you're  for  arguing  that  lovely  women 
show  us  more  of  the  flower  than  the  grape,  in  relation  to  the 
course  of  time.  I  pray  you  not  to  forget  the  terrible  intoxi- 
cant she  is.  We  reconcile  it,  Mr.  Carling,  with  the  notion 
that  the  grape's  her  spirit,  the  flower  her  body.  Or  is  it  the 
reverse?  Perhaps  an  intertwining.  But  look  upon  bouquets 
and  clusters,  and  the  idea  of  woman  springs  up  at  once, 
proving  she's  composed  of  them.  I  was  about  to  remark, 
that  with  deference  to  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Hurman's  legal 
adviser,  an  impenitent  or  penitent  sinner's  pastor,  the 
Eeverend  gentleman  ministering  to  her  spiritual  needs, 
would  presumptively  exercise  it,  in  this  instance,  in  a  superior 
degree." 

Carling  murmured  :  "  The  Rev.  Groseman  Buttermore ; w 


56  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

and  did  so  for  something  of  a  cover,  to  continue  a  run  cf 
internal  reflections  :  as,  that  he  was  assuredly  listening  to 
vinous  talk  in  the  streets  by  day ;  which  impression  placed 
him  on  a  decorous  platform  above  the  amusing  gentleman; 
to  whom,  however,  he  grew  cordial,  in  recognizing  conse- 
quently, that  his  exuberant  flow  could  haidly  be  a  mask; 
and  that  an  indication  here  and  there  of  a  trap  in  his  talk, 
must  have  been  due  rather  to  excess  of  wariness,  habitual  in 
the  .mind  of  a  long-headed  man,  whose  incorrigibly  impulsive 
fits  had  necessarilv  to  be  rectified  by  a  vigilant  dexterity. 

"Buttermore!"  ejaculated  Fenellan:  "  Groseman  Butter- 
more!  Mrs.  Victor's  Father  Confessor  is  the  Rev.  Septimus 
Barmby.  Groseman  Buttermore — Septimus  Barmby.  Is 
there  anything  in  names?  Truly,  unless  these  clerical 
gentlemen  take  them  up  at  the  crossing  of  the  roads  l'<ng 
after  birth,  the  names  would  appear  the  active  parts  of  them, 
and  themselves  mere  marching  supports,  like  the  bearers  of 
street  plaqard-advertisements.  Now,  I  know  a  Septimus 
Barmby,  and  you  a  Groseman  Buttermore,  and  beyond  the 
fact  that  Reverend  starts  up  before  their  names  without 
mention,  I  wager  it's  about  all  we  do  know  of  them.  They're 
Society's  trusty  rock-limpets,  no  doubt." 

"My  respect  for  the  cloth  is  extreme."  Calling's  short 
cough  prepared  the  way  for  deductions.  "  Between  our- 
selves, they  are  not  men  of  the  world." 

Fenellan  eyed  benevolently  the  worthy  attorney,  whose 
innermost  imp  burst  out  periodically,  like  a  Dutch  clock- 
sentry,  to  trot  on  his  own  small  grounds  for  thinking  himself 
of  the  community  of  the  man  of  the  world.  ••  You  lawyers 
dress  in  another  closet,"  he  said.  "  The  Rev.  Groseman  has 
the  ear  of  the  lady  ?  " 

"  He  has : — one  ear." 

"Ah?  She  has  the  other  open  for  a  man  of  the  world, 
perhaps." 

"  Listens  to  him,  listens  to  me,  listens  to  Jarniman ;  and 
we  neither  of  us  guide  her.  She's  very  curious — a  study. 
You  think  you  know  her — next  day  she  has  eluded  you. 
She's  emotional,  she's  hard  ;  she's  a  woman,  she's  a  stone. 
Anything  you  like;  but  don't  count  on  her.  And  another 
thing — I'm  bound  to  say  it  of  myself,"  Carling  claimed  close 
hearing  of  Fenellan  over  a  shelf  of  salad-stuff,  "  no  one  who 
comes  near  her  ha.^  any  real  weight  with  her  in  this  matter." 


UNIVERSITY 
THE   MAN   OF   THE   ^^g^^ 

"  Probably  you  mix  cream  in  your  salad  of  the  vinegar 
and  oil,"  said  Fenellan.     "  Try  jelly  of  mutton." 

"  You  give  me  a  new  idea.  Latterly,  fond  as  I  am  of 
salads,  I've  had  rueful  qualms.     We'll  try  it." 

"  You  should  dine  with  Victor  Radnor." 

**  French  cook,  of  course." 

"  Cordon  bleu." 

44 1  like  to  be  sure  of  my  cutlet." 

"  I  like  to  be  sure  of  a  tastiness  in  my  vegetables." 

M  And  good  sauces  ! " 

"  And  pretty  pastry.  I  said,  Cordon  bleu.  The  miracle 
is,  it's  a  woman  that  Victor  Radnor  has  trained  :  French, 
but  a  woman ;  devoted  to  him,  as  all  who  serve  him  are.  Do 
1  say  'but'  a  woman9  There's  not  a  Frenchman  alive  to 
match  her.  Vatel  awaits  her  in  Paradise  with  his  arms 
extended  :  and  may  he  wait  long  !  " 

Carling  indulged  his  passion  for  the  genuine  by  letting  a 
flutter  of  real  envy  be  seen.  "My  wife  would  like  to  meet 
such  a  Frenchwoman.  It  must  be  a  privilege  to  dine  with 
him — to  know  him.  I  know  what  lie  has  done  for  English 
Commerce,  and  to  build  a  colossal  fortune  :  genius,  as  I  said : 
and  his  donations  to  Institutions.  Odd,  to  read  his  name 
and  Mrs.  Burman  Radnor's  at  separate  places  in  the  lists! 
"Well,  we'll  hope.  It's  a  case  for  a  compromise  of  sentiments 
and  claims." 

"A  friend  of  mine,  spiced  with  cynic,  declares  that  there's 
always  an  amicable  way  out  of  a  dissension,  if  we  get  rid  of 
Lupus  and  Vulpus." 

Carling  spied  for  a  trap  in  the  citation  of  Lupus  and 
Vulpus;  he  saw  none,  and  named  the  square  of  his  residence 
on  the  great  Russell  property,  and  the  number  of  the  house, 
the  hour  of  dinner  next  day.  He  then  hung  silent,  breaking 
the  pause  with  his  hand  out  and  a  sharp  "Well?"  that 
rattled  a  whirligig  sound  in  his  head  upward.  His  leave  of 
people  was  taken  in  this  laughing  falsetto,  as  of  one  affected 
by  the  curious  end  things  come  to. 

Fenellan  thought  of  him  for  a  moment  or  two,  that  he  was 
a  better  than  the  common  kind  of  lawyer;  who  doubtless 
knew  as  much  of  the  wrong  side  of  the  world  as  lawyers  do, 
and  held  his  knowledge  for  the  being  a  man  of  the  world  : — 
as  all  do,  that  have  not  Alpine  heights  in  the  mind  to  mount 
for  a  look  out  over  their  own  and   the  world's  pedestrian 


58  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

trades.  I  could  spot  the  lawyer  in  your  composition,  my 
friend,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  man,  he  mused.  But  you're 
right -in  what  you  mean  to  say  of  yourself:  you're  a  good 
fellow,  for  a  lawyer,  and  together  we  may  manage  somehow 
to  score  a  point  of  service  to  Victor  Kadnor. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SOME   FAMILIAR   GUESTS. 

Nesta  read  her  mother's  face  when  Mrs.  Victor  entered  the 
drawing-room  to  receive  the  guests.  She  saw  a  smooth  fair 
surface,  of  the  kind  as  much  required  by  her  father's  eyes  as 
innocuous  air  by  his  nostrils :  and  it  was  honest  skin,  not 
the  deceptive  feminine  veiling,  to  make  a  dear  man  happy 
over  his  volcano.  Mrs.  Victor  was  to  meet  the  friends  with 
whom  her  feelings  were  at  home,  among  whom  her  musical 
gifts  gave  her  station:  they  liked  her  for  herself;  they 
helped  her  to  feel  at  home  with  herself  and  be  herself:  a 
rarer  condition  with  us  all  than  is  generally  supposed.  So 
she  could  determine  to  be  cheerful  in  the  anticipation  of  an 
evening  that  would  at  least  be  restful  to  the  outworn 
sentinel  nerve  of  her  heart,  which  was  perpetually  alert  and 
signalling  to  the  great  organ  ;  often  colouring  the  shows 
and  seems  of  adverse  things  for  an  apeing  of  reality  with  too 
cruel  a  resemblance.  One  of  the  scraps  of  practical  wisdom 
gained  by  hardened  sufferers  is,  to  keep  from  spying  at 
horizons  when  they  drop  into  a  pleasant  dingle.  Such  is 
the  comfort  of  it,  that  we  can  dream,  and  lull  our  fears,  and 
half  think  what  we  wish :  and  it  is  a  heavenly  truce  with 
the  fretful  mind  divided  from  our  wishes. 

Nesta  wondered  at  her  mother's  complacent  questions 
concerning  this  Lakelands :  the  house,  the  county,  the  kind 
of  people  about,  the  features  of  the  country.  Physically 
unable  herself  to  be  regretful  under  a  burden  three  parts 
enrapturing  her,  the  girl  expected  her  mother  to  display  •<% 
shadowy  vexation,  with  a  proud  word  or  two,  that  would 
summon  her  thrilling  sympathy  in  regard  to  the  fourth 
part:  namely,  the  aristocratic  iciness  of  country  magnates* 


SOME    FAMILIAR    GUESTS.  69 

who  took  tliem  tip  and  cast  them  off ;  as  they  had  done,  she 
thought,  at  Craye  Farm  and  at  Creckholt :  she  remembered 
it,  of  the  latter  place,  wincingly,  insurgently,  having  loved 
the  dear  home  she  had  been  expelled  from  by  the  pride  of 
the  frosty  surrounding  people — or  no,  not  all,  but  some  of 
them.     And  what  had  roused  their  pride  ? 

Striking  for  a  reason,  her  inexperience  of  our  modern 
England,  supplemented  by  readings  in  the  England  of  a 
preceding  generation,  had  hit  on  her  father's  profession  of 
merchant.  It  accounted  to  her  for  the  behaviour  of  the 
haughty  territorial  and  titled  families.  But  certain  of  the 
minor  titles  headed  City  Firms,  she  had  heard;  certain  of 
the  families  were  avowedly  commercial.  "  They  follow 
suit,"  her  father  said  at  Creckholt,  after  he  had  found  her 
mother  weeping,  and  decided  instantly  to  quit  and  fly  once 
more.  But  if  they  followed  suit  in  such  a  way,  then  Mr. 
Durance  must  be  right  when  lie  called  the  social  English  the 
most  sheepy  of  sheep: — and  Nesta  could  not  consent  to 
the  cruel  verdict,  she  adored  her  compatriots.  Incongruities 
were  pacified  for  her  by  the  suggestion  of  her  quick  wits, 
that  her  father,  besides  being  a  merchant,  was  a  successful 
speculator;  and  perhaps  the  speculator  is  not  liked  by 
merchants;  or  they  were  jealous  of  him;  or  they  did  not 
like  his  being  both. 

She  pardoned  them  with  some  tenderness,  on  a  suspicion 
that  a  quaint  old  high-frilled  bleached  and  puckered  Puri- 
tanical rectitude  (her  thoughts  rose  in  pictures)  possibly 
condemned  the  speculator  as  a  description  of  gambler.  An 
erratic  severity  in  ethics  is  easily  overlooked  by  the  enthu- 
siast for  things  old  English.  She  was  consciously  ahead  of 
them  in  the  knowledge  that  her  father  had  been,  without 
the  taint  of  gambling,  a. beneficent  speculator.  The  Mont- 
gomery colony  in  South  Africa,  and  his  dealings  with  the 
natives  in  India,  and  his  Railways  in  South  America,  his 
establishment  of  Insurance  Offices,  which  were  Savings  Banks, 
and  the  Stores  for  the  dispensing  of  sound  goods  to  the  poor, 
attested  it.  O  and  he  was  hospitable,  the  kindest,  helpfullest 
of  friends,  the  dearest,  the  very  brightest  of  parents  :  he  was 
his  girl's  playmate.  She  could  be  critic  of  him,  for  an 
induction  to  the  loving  of  him  more  justly :  yet  if  he  had 
an  excessive  desire  to  win  the  esteem  of  people,  as  these 
keen  young  optics  perceived  in  him,  he  strove  to  deserve  it; 


60  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

and  no  one  could  accuse  him  of  laying  stress  on  the  benefits 
he  conferred.  Designedly,  frigidly  to  wound  a  man  so 
benevolent,  appeared  to  her  as  an  incomprehensible  baseness. 
The  dropping  of  acquaintanceship  with  him,  after  the  ta-te 
of  its  privileges,  she  ascribed,  in  the  void  of  any  better 
elucidation,  to  a  mania  of  aristocratic  conceit.  It  drove  her, 
despite  her  youthful  contempt  of  politics,  into  a  Radicalism 
that  could  find  food  in  the  epigrams  of  Mr.  Colney  Durance, 
even  when  they  passed  her  understanding;  or  when  he  was 
not  too  distinctly  seen  by  her  to  be  shooting  at  all  the  parties 
of  her  beloved  England,  beneath  the  wicked  semblance  of 
shielding  each  by  turns. 

The  young  gentleman  introduced  to  the  Eadnor  Concert- 
parties  by  Lady  Grace  Hal  ley  as  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sower  by, 
had  to  bear  the  sins  of  his  class.  Though  he  was  tall, 
straight-featured,  correct  in  costume,  appearance,  deport- 
ment, second  son  of  a  religious  earl  and  no  scandal  to  the 
parentage,  he  was  less  noticed  by  Nesta  than  the  elderly  and 
the  commoners.  Her  father  accused  her  of  snubbing  him. 
She  reproduced  her  famous  copy  of  the  sugared  acid  of  Mr. 
Dudley  Sowerby's  closed  mouth  :  a  sort  of  sneer  in  meekness, 
as  of  humility  under  legitimate  compulsion;  deploring 
Christianly  a  pride  of  race  that  stamped  it  for  this  cowled 
exhibition:  the  wonderful  mimicry  was  a  flash,  thrown  out 
by  a  born  mistress  of  the  art,  and  her  mother  was  constrained 
to  laugh,  and  so  was  her  father ;  but  he  wilfully  denied  the 
likeness.  He  charged  her  with  encouraging  Colney  Durance 
to  drag  forth  the  sprig  of  nobility,  in  the  nakedness  of 
evicted  shell-fish,  on  themes  of  the  peril  to  England,  possibly 
ruin,  through  the  loss  of  that  ruling  initiative  formerly 
possessed,  in  the  days  of  our  glory,  by  the  titular  nobles  of 
the  land.  Colney  spoke  it  effectively,  and  the  Hon.  Dudley's 
expressive  lineaments  showed  print  of  the  heaving  word 
Alas,  as  when  a  target  is  penetrated  centrally.  And  he  was 
not  a  particularly  dull  fellow  u  for  his  class  and  country," 
Colney  admitted;  adding:  "I  hit  his  thought  and  out  he 
came."  One  has,  reluctantly  with  Victor  Eadnor,  to  grant, 
that  when  a  man's  topmost  unspoken  thought  is  hit,  he  must 
be  sharp  on  his  guard  to  keep  from  coming  out: — we  have 
won  a  right  to  him. 

*'Only,  it's  too  bad;  it's  a  breach  of  hospitality,"  Victor 
said,   both   to    Nesta    and    to    Nataly,    alluding   to    several 


SOME    FAMILIAR    GUESTS.  61 

instances  of  Colney's  ironic  handling  of  their  guests,  espe- 
cially of  this  one,  whom  Nesta  would  attack,  and  Nataly 
would  not  defend. 

They  were  alive  at  a  signal  to  protect  the  others.  Miss 
Priscilla  Graves,  an  eater  of  meat,  was  ridiculous  in  her 
ant'alcoholic  exclusiveness  and  scorn :  Mr.  Pempton,  a 
drinker  of  wine,  would  laud  extravagantly  the  more  trans- 
parent purity  of  vegetarianism.  Dr.  Peter  Yatt  jeered  at 
globules :  Dr.  John  Cormyn  mourned  over  human  creatures 
treated  as  cattle  by  big  doses.  The  Eev.  Septimus  Barmby 
satisfactorily  smoked:  Mr.  Peridon  traced  mortal  evil  to 
that  act.  Dr.  Schlesien  had  his  German  views,  Colney 
Durance  his  ironic,  Fenellan  his  fanciful  and  free-lance. 
And  here  was  an  optimist,  there  a  pessimist ;  and  the  rank 
Radical,  the  rigid  Conservative,  were  not  wanting.  All  of 
them  were  pointedly  opposed,  extraordinarily  for  so  small  an 
assembly:  absurdly,  it  might  be  thought:  but  these  pro- 
voked a  kind  warm  smile,  with  the  exclamation :  "  They  are 
dears ! "  They  were  the  dearer  for  their  fads  and  foibles. 
Music  harmonized  them.  Music,  strangely,  put  the  spell  on 
Colney  Durance,  the  sayer  of  bitter  things,  manufacturer  of 
prickly  balls,  in  the  form  of  Discord's  apples:  of  whom 
Fenellan  remarked,  that  he  took  to  his  music  like  an  angry 
little  boy  to  his  barley-sugar,  with  a  growl  and  a  grunt. 
All  these  diverse  friends  could  meet  and  mix  in  Victor's 
Concert-room  with  an  easy  homely  recognition  of  one 
another's  musical  qualities,  at  times  enthusiastic;  and  their 
natural  divergencies  and  occasional  clashes  added  a  salient 
tastiness  to  the  group:  of  whom  Nesta  could  say  :  "  Mama, 
was  there  ever  such  a  collection  of  dear  good  souls  with  such 
contrary  minds?"  Her  mother  had  the  deepest  of  reasons 
for  loving  them,  so  as  not  to  wish  to  see  the  slightest  change 
in  their  minds,  that  the  accustomed  features  making  her 
nest  of  homeliness  and  real  peace  might  be  retained,  with 
the  humour  of  their  funny  silly  antagonisms  and  the  subse- 
quent march  in  concord ;  excepting  solely  as  regarded  the 
pervei\seness  of  Priscilla  Graves  in  her  open  contempt  of 
Mr,  Pempton's  innocent  two  or  three  wineglasses.  The 
vegetarian  gentleman's  politeness  forbore  to  direct  attention 
to  the  gobbets  of  meat  Priscilla  consumed,  though  he  could 
express  disapproval  in  general  terms;  but  he  entertained 
sentiments  as  warlike  to  the  lady's  habit  of  "drinking  the 


62  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"blood  of  animals."  The  mockery  of  it  was,  that  Pris°illa 
liked  Mr.  Pempton  and  admired  his  violoncello-playing,  and 
he  was  unreserved  in  eulogy  of  her  person  and  her  pure 
soprano  tones.  Nataly  was  a  poetic  match-maker.  Mr. 
Peridon  was  intended  for  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  Nesta's 
young  French  governess;  a  lady  of  a  courtly  bearing,  with 
placid  speculation  in  the  eyes  she  cast  on  a  foreign  people, 
and  a  voluble  muteness  shadowing  at  intervals  along  the  line 
of  her  closed  lips. 

The  one  person  among  them  a  little  out  of  tune  with  most, 
was  Lady  Grace  Halley.  Nataly's  provincial  gentlewoman's 
traditions  of  the  manners  indicating  conduct,  reproved 
unwonted  licences  assumed  by  Lady  Grace;  who,  in  allusion 
to  Hymen's  weaving  of  a  cousinship  between  the  earldom  (if 
Southweare  and  that  of  Cantor,  of  which  Mr.  Sowerby 
sprang,  set  her  mouth  and  fan  at  work  to  delineate  total 
distinctions,  as  it  were  from  the  egg  to  the  empyrean.  Her 
stature  was  rather  short,  all  of  it  conversational,  at  the  eye- 
brows, the  shoulders,  the  finger-tips,  the  twisting  shape ;  a 
ballerina's  expressiveness ;  and  her  tongue  dashed  half 
sentences  through  and  among  these  hieroglyphs,  loosely  and 
funnily  candid.  Anybody  might  hear  that  she  had  gone 
gambling  into  the  City,  and  that  she  had  got  herself  into  a 
mess,  and  that  by  great  good  luck  she  had  come  across 
"Victor  Radnor,  who,  with  two  turns  of  the  wrist,  had  plucked 
her  out  of  the  mire,  the  miraculous  man !  And  she  had 
vowed  to  him,  never  again  to  run  doing  the  like  without  his 
approval.  The  cause  of  her  having  done  it,  was  related 
with  the  accompaniments;  brows  twitching,  flitting  smiles, 
shrugs,  pouts,  shifts  of  posture  :  she  was  married  to  a  centaur; 
out  of  the  saddle  a  man  of  wood,  "  an  excellent  man."  For 
the  not  colloquial  do  not  commit  themselves.  But  one  wants 
a  little  animation  in  a  husband.  She  called  on  bell-motion 
of  the  head  to  toll  forth  the  utter  nightcap  negative.  He 
had  not  any  :  out  of  the  saddle,  he  was  asleep  : — "  next  door 
to  the  Last  Trump,"  Colney  Durance  assisted  her  to  describe 
the  soundest  of  sleep  in  a  husband,  after  wooing  her  to 
unbosom  herself.  She  was  awake  to  his  guileful  arts,  and 
sailed  along  with  him,  hailing  his  phrases,  if  he  shot  a  good 
one;  prankishly  exposing  a  flexible  nature,  that  took  its 
holiday  thus  in  a  grinding  world,  among  maskers,  to  the 
horrifLcation  of  the  prim.     So  to  refresh  ourselves,  by  having 


SOME    FAMILIAR    GUESTS.  68 

publicly  a  hip-bath  in  the  truth  while  we  shock  our  hearers 
enough  to  be  discredited  for  what  we  reveal,  was  a  dexterous 
merry  twist/amusing  to  her;  but  it  was  less  a  cynical  malice 
than  her  nature  that  she  indulged.  "A  woman  must  have 
some  excitement."  The  most  innocent  appeared  to  her  the 
Stock  Exchange.  The  opinions  of  husbands  who  are  not 
summoned  to  pay  are  hardly  important ;  they  vary. 

Colney  helped  her  now  and  then  to  step  the  trifle  beyond 
her  stride,  but  if  he  was  humorous,  she  forgave ;  and  if 
together  they  appalled  the  decorous,  it  was  great  gain.  Her 
supple  person,  pretty  lips,  the  style  she  had,  gave  a  pass  to 
the  wondrous  contidings,  which  were  for  masculine  ears, 
whatever  the  sex.  Nataly  might  share  in  them,  but  women 
did  not  lead  her  to  expansiveness ;  or  not  the  women  of  the 
contracted  class:  Miss  Graves,  Mrs.  Cormyn,  and  others  at 
the  Kadnor  Concerts.  She  had  a  special  consideration  for 
Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  owing  to  her  exquisite  French,  as 
she  said;  and  she  may  have  liked  it,  but  it  was  the  young 
Frenchwoman's  air  of  high  breeding  that  wron  her  esteem. 
Girls  were  Spring  frosts  to  her.  Fronting  Nesta,  she  put  on 
her  printed  smile,  or  wood-cut  of  a  smile,  with  its  label  of 
indulgence;  except  when  the  girl  sang.  Music  she  loved. 
She  said  it  was  the  saving  of  poor  Dudley.  It  distinguished 
him  in  the  group  of  the  noble  Evangelical  Cantor  Family; 
and  it  gave  him  a  subject  of  assured  discourse  in  company; 
and  oddly,  it  contributed  to  his  comelier  air.  Flute  in  hand, 
his  mouth  at  the  blow-stop  wras  relieved  of  its  pained  up- 
draw  by  the  form  for  puffing ;  he  preserved  a  gentlemanly 
high  figure  in  his  exercises  on  the  instrument,  out  of  ken  of 
all  likeness  to  the  urgent  insistancy  of  Victor  Radnor's 
punctuating  trunk  of  the  puffing  frame  at  almost  every  bar 
— an  Apollo  brilliancy  in  energetic  pursuit  of  the  nymph  of 
sweet  sound.  Too  methodical  one,  too  fiery  the  other.  In 
duets  of  Hauptmann's,  with  Nesta  at  the  piano,  the  contrast 
of  dull  smoothness  and  overstressed  significance  was  very 
noticeable  beside  the  fervent  accuracy  of  her  balanced  finger- 
ing; and  as  she  could  also  flute,  she  could  criticize;  though 
latterly  the  flute  was  boxed  away  from  lips  that  had  devoted 
themselves  wholly  to  song :  song  being  one  of  the  damsel's 
present  pressing  ambitions.  She  found  nothing  to  correct  in 
Mr.  Sowerby,  and  her  father  was  open  to  all  the  censures ; 
but  her  father  could  plead  vitality,  passion.     He  held  his 


64  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

perfoimances  cheap  after  the  vehement  display;  he  was  a 
happy  listener,  whether  to  the  babble  of  his  "dear  old 
Corelli,"  or  to  the  majesty  of  the  rattling  heavens  and 
swaying  forests  of  Beethoven. 

His  air  of  listening  was  a  thing  to  see;  it  had  a  look  of 
disembodiment;  the  sparkle  conjured  up  from  deeps,  and  the 
life  in  the  sparkle,  as  of  a  soul  at  holiday.  Eyes  had  been 
given  this  man  to  spy  the  pleasures  and  reveal  the  joy  of  his 
pasture  on  them :  gateways  to  the  sunny  within,  issues  to  all 
the  outer  Edens.  Few  of  us  possess  that  double  significance 
of  the  pure  sparkle.  It  captivated  Lady  Gra ue.  She  said  a 
word  of  it  to  Fenellan :  "  There  is  a  man  who  can  feel 
rapture  !  "  He  had  not  to  follow  the  line  of  her  sight :  she 
said  so  on  a  previous  evening,  in  a  similar  tone;  and  for  a 
woman  to  repeat  herself,  using  the  very  emphasis,  was  quaint. 
She  could  feel  rapture ;  but  her  features  and  limbs  were  in 
motion  to  designate  it,  between  simply  and  wilfully;  she 
had  the  instinct  to  be  dimpling,  and  would  not  for  a  moment 
control  it,  and  delighted  in  its  effectiveness:  only  when 
observing  that  winged  sparkle  of  eyes  did  an  idea  of  envy, 
hardly  a  consciousness,  inform  her  of  being  surpassed ;  and 
it  might  be  in  the  capacity  to  feel  besides  the  gift  to  express. 
Such  a  reflection  relating  to  a  man,  will  make  women 
mortally  sensible  that  they  are  the  feminine  of  him. 

44  His  girl  has  the  look,"  Fenellan  said  in  answer. 

She  cast  a  glance  at  Nesta,  then  at  Nataly. 

And  it  was  true,  that  the  figure  of  a  mother,  not  pretending 
to  the  fathers  vividness,  eclipsed  it  somewhat  in  their  child. 
The  mother  gave  richness  of  tones,  hues  and  voice,  and 
stature  likewise,  and  the  thick  brown  locks,  which  in  her 
own  were  threads  of  gold  along  the  brush  from  the  temples : 
she  gave  the  girl  a  certain  degree  of  the  composure  of 
manner  which  Victor  could  not  have  bestowed ;  she  gave 
nothing  to  clash  with  his  genial  temper;  she  might  be  sup- 
posed to  have  given  various  qualities,  moral  if  you  like.  But 
vividness  was  Lady  Grace's  admirable  meteor  of  the  hour : 
she  was  unable  to  perceive,  so  as  to  compute,  the  value  of 
obscurer  lights.  Under  the  charm  of  Nataly's  rich  contralto 
during  a  duet  with  Priscilla  Graves,  she  gesticulated 
ecstasies,  and  uttered  them,  and  genuinely ;  and  still,  when 
reduced  to  meditations,  they  would  have  had  no  weight, 
they  would  hardly  have  seemed  an  apology  for  language, 


SOME    FAMILIAR    GUESTS.  65 

beside  Victor's  gaze  of  pleasure  in  the  noble  forthroll  of  the 
notes. 

Natal y  heard  the  invitation  of  the  guests  of  the  evening 
to  Lakeland's  next  day. 

Her  anxieties  were  at  once  running  about  to  gather  pro- 
visions for  the  baskets.  She  spoke  of  them  at  night.  But 
Victor  had  already  put  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  Madame 
Oallet;  and  all  that  could  be  done,  would  be  done  by 
Armandine,  he  knew.  "  If  she  can't  muster  enough  at  home, 
she'll  be  off  to  her  Pier  adilly  shop  by  seven  a.m.  Count  on 
plenty  for  twice  the  number." 

Nataly  was  reposing  on  the  thought  that  they  were  her 
friends,  when  Victor  mentioned  his  having  in  the  afternoon 
despatched  a  note  to  his  relatives,  the  Duvidney  ladies, 
inviting  them  to  join  him  at  the  station  to-morrow,  for  a 
visit  of  inspection  to  the  house  of  his  building  on  his  new 
estate.  He  startled  her.  The  Duvidney  ladies  were,  to  his 
knowledge,  of  the  order  of  the  fragile  minds  which  hold 
together  by  the  cement  of  a  common  trepidation  for  the 
support  of  things  established,  and  have  it  not  in  them  to  be 
able  to  recognize  the  unsanctioned.  Good  women,  unworldly 
of  the  world,  they  were  perforce  harder  than  the  world,  from 
being  narrower  and  more  timorous. 

'*  But,  Victor,  you  were  sure  they  would  refuse ! " 

He  answered :  "  They  may  have  gone  back  to  Tunbridge 
Wells.  By  the  way,  they  have  a  society  down  there  I  want 
for  Fredi.  Sure,  do  you  say,  my  dear  ?  Perfectly  sure.  But 
the  accumulation  of  invitations  and  refusals  in  the  end  softens 
them,  you  will  see.  We  shall  and  must  have  them  for  Fredi." 

She  was  used  to  the  long  reaches  of  his  forecasts,  his 
burning  activity  on  a  project ;  she  found  it  idle  to  speak  her 
thought,  that  his  ingenuity  would  have  been  needless  in  a 
position  dictated  by  plain  prudence,  and  so  much  happier  for 
them. 

They  talked  of  Mrs.  Burman  until  she  had  to  lift  a  prayer 
to  be  saved  from  darker  thoughts,  dreadfully  prolific,  not  to 
be  faced.  Part  of  her  prayer  was  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Burman, 
for  life  to  be  extended  to  her,  if  the  poor  lady  cluug  to  life — 
if  it  was  really  humane  to  wish  it  for  her:  and  heaven  would 
know:  heaven  had  mercy  on  the  afflicted. 

Nataly  heard  the  snuffle  of  hypocrisy  in  her  prayer.  She 
had  to  cease  to  pray. 

¥ 


66  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS, 

CHAPTER  IX. 

AN   INSPECTION   OF   LAKELANDS. 

One  may  not  have  an  intention  to  flourish,  and  may  be 
pardoned  for  a  semblance  of  it,  in  exclaiming,  somewhat 
royally,  as  creator  and  owner  of  the  place :  "  There  you  see 
Lakelands." 

The  conveyances  from  the  railway  station  drew  up  on 
a  rise  of  road  fronting  an  undulation,  where  our  modern 
English  architect's  fantasia  in  crimson  brick  swept  from 
central  gables  to  flying  wings,  over  pents,  crooks,  curves, 
peaks,  cowled  porches,  balconies,  recesses,  projections,  away 
to  a  red  village  of  stables  and  dependent  cottages ;  harmo- 
nious in  irregularity ;  and  coloured  homely  with  the  green- 
sward about  it,  the  pines  beside  it,  the  clouds  above  it.  Not 
many  palaces  would  be  reckoned  as  larger.  The  folds  and 
swells  and  stream  of  the  building  along  the  roll  of 
ground,  had  an  appearance  of  an  enormous  banner  on  the 
wind.  Nataly  looked.  Her  next  look  was  at  Colney 
Durance.  She  sent  the  expected  nods  to  Victor's  carriage. 
She  would  have  given  the  whole  prospect  for  the  covering 
solitariness  of  her  chamber.  A  multitude  of  clashing  sensa- 
tions, and  a  throat-thickening  hateful  to  her,  compelled  her 
to  summon  so  as  to  force  heiself  to  feel  a  groundless  anger, 
directed  against  none,  against  nothing,  perfectly  crazy,  but 
her  only  resource  for  keeping  down  the  great  wave  surgent 
at  her  eyes. 

Victor  was  like  a  swimmer  in  morning  sea  amid  the  ex- 
clamations encircling  him.  He  led  through  the  straight 
passage  of  the  galleried  hall,  offering  two  fair  landscapes 
at  front  door  and  at  back,  down  to  the  lake,  Fredi's  lake ;  a 
good  oblong  of  water,  notable  in  a  district  not  abounding 
in  the  commodity.  He  would  have  it  a  feature  of  the 
district ;  and  it  had  been  deepened  and  extended  ;  up  rose 
the  springs,  many  ran  the  ducts.  Fredi's  pretty  little  bath- 
shed  or  bower  had  a  s]  ace  of  marble  on  the  three-feet  shallow 
it  overhung  with  a  shade  of  carved  woodwork ;  it  had 
a  diving  board  tor  an  eight-feet  plunge  ;  a  punt  and  small 
row-boat  of  elegant  build  hard  by.     Green  ran  the  banks 


AN   INSPECTION   OF   LAKELANDS.  67 

about,  and  a  beechwood  fringed  with,  birches  curtained  the 
Northward  length :  morning  sun  and  evening  had  a  fair 
face  of  water  to  paint.  Saw  man  ever  the  like  for  pleasing 
a  poetical  damsel?  So  was  Miss  Fredi,  the  coldest  of  the 
party  hitherto,  and  dreaming  a  preference  of  *  old  places ' 
like  Creckholt  and  Craye  Farm,  '  captured  to  be  enraptured/ 
quite  according  to  man's  ideal  of  his  beneficence  to  the  sex. 
She  pressed  the  hand  of  her  young  French  governess  Louise 
de  Seilles.  As  in  everything  he  did  for  his  girl,  Victor 
pointed  boastfully  to  his  forethought  of  her  convenience 
and  her  tastes  :  the  pine-panels  of  the  interior,  the  shelves 
for  her  books,  pegs  to  hang  her  favourite  drawings,  and 
the  couch-bunk  under  a  window  to  conceal  the  summerly 
recliner  while  throwing  full  light  on  her  book ;  and  the 
hearth-square  for  logs,  when  she  wanted  fire :  because  Fredi 
bathed  in  any  weather :  the  oaken  towel-coffer ;  the  wood- 
carvings  of  doves,  tits,  fishes  ;  the  rod  for  the  flowered  silken 
hangings  she  was  to  choose,  and  have  shy  odalisque  peeps 
of  sunny  water  from  her  couch. 

"Fredi's  Naiad  retreat,  when  she  wishes  to  escape  Herr 
Strauscher  or  Signor  Kuderi,"  said  Victor,  having  his 
grateful  girl  warm  in  an  arm ;  "  and  if  they  head  after  her 
into  the  water,  I  back  her  to  leave  them  puffing ;  she's  a 
dolphin.  That  water  has  three  springs  and  gets  all  the 
drainings  of  the  upland  round  us.  I  chose  the  place  chiefly 
on  account  of  it  and  the  pines.     I  do  love  pines  !  " 

"  But,  excellent  man  !  what  do  you  not  love  ?  "  said  Lady 
Grace,  with  the  timely  hit  upon  the  obvious,  which  rings. 

"  It  saves  him  from  accumulation  of  tissue,"  said  Colney. 

"  What  does  ? "  was  eagerly  asked  by  the  wife  of  the 
homoeopathic  Dr.  John  Cormyn,  a  sentimental  lady  beset 
with  fears  of  stoutness. 

Victor  cried:  "  Tush;  don't  listen  to  Colney,  pray." 

But  she  heard  Colney  speak  of  a  positive  remedy,  more 
immediately  effective  than  an  abjuration  of  potatoes  and 
sugar.  She  was  obliged  by  her  malady  to  listen,  although 
detesting  the  irreverent  ruthless  man,  who  could  direct 
expanding  frames,  in  a  serious  tone,  to  love ;  love  everybody, 
everything  ;  violently  and  universally  love  ;  and  so  without 
intermission  pay  out  the  fat  created  by  a  rapid  assimilation 
of  nutriment.  Obeseness  is  the  most  sensitive  of  our  ail- 
ments :  probably  as  being  aware,  that  its  legitimate  appeal 


68  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

to  pathos  is  ever  smothered  in  its  pudding-bed  of  the 
grotesque.  She  was  pained,  and  showed  it,  and  was  ashamed 
of  herself  for  (showing  it ;  and  that  very  nearly  fetched 
the  tear. 

"Our  host  is  an  instance  in  proof,"  Colney  said.  He 
waved  hand  at  the  house.  His  meaning  was  hidden  ; 
evidently  he  wanted  victims.  Sight  of  Lakelands  had 
gripped  him  with  the  fell  satiric  itch  ;  and  it  is  a  passion  to 
sting  and  tear,  on  rational  grounds.  His  face  meanwhile, 
which  had  points  of  the  handsome,  signified  a  smile  asleep, 
as  if  beneath  a  cloth.  Only  those  who  knew  him  well  were 
aware  of  the  claw-like  alertness  under  the  droop  of  eyelids. 

Admiration  was  the  common  note,  in  the  various  keys. 
The  station  selected  for  the  S"Uth-eastward  aspect  of  the 
dark-red  gabled  pile  on  its  white  shell-terrace,  backed  by  a 
plantation  of  tall  pines,  a  mounded  and  full-plumed  company, 
above  the  left  wing,  was  admired,  in  files  and  in  volleys. 
Marvellous,  effectively  miraculous,  was  the  tale  of  the  vow 
to  have  the  great  edifice  finished  within  one  year :  and  the 
strike  of  workmen,  and  the  friendly  colloquy  with  them, 
the  good  reasoning,  the  unanimous  return  to  duty ;  and  the 
doubling,  the  trebling  of  the  number  of  them;  and  the 
most  glorious  of  sights — the  grand  old  English  working 
with  a  will !  as  Englishmen  do  when  they  Ci>me  at  last  to 
heat ;  and  they  conquer,  there  is  then  nothing  that  they 
cannot  conquer.  So  the  conqueror  said. — And  admirable 
were  the  conservatories  running  three  long  lines,  one  from 
the  drawing-room,  to  a  central  dome  for  tropical  growths. 
And  the  parterres  were  admired;  also  the  newly-planted 
Irish  junipers  bounding  the  West- walk  ;  and  the  three  tiers 
of  stately  descent  from  the  three  green  terrace  banks  to  the 
grassy  slopes  over  the  lake.  Again  the  lake  was  admired, 
the  house  admired.  Admiration  was  evoked  for  great 
orchid-houses  "over  yonder,"  soon  to  be  set  up. 

Off  we  go  to  the  kitchen-garden.  There  the  admiration 
is  genial,  practical.  We  admire  the  extent  of  the  beds 
marked  out  for  asparagus,  and  the  French  disposition  of  the 
planting  at  wide  intervals;  and  the  French  system  of  train- 
ing peach,  pear,  and  plum  trees  on  the  walls  to  win  length 
and  catch  sun,  we  much  admire.  We  admire  the  gardener. 
We  are  induced  temporarily  to  admire  the  French  people. 
They  are  sagacious  in  fruit-gardens.      They  have  not  the 


AN   INSPECTION    OF  LAKELANDS.  6S 

English  Constitution,  you  think  rightly;  but.  in-  fruit- 
gardens  they  grow  for  fruit,  and  not,  as  Victor  quotes  a 
friend,  for  wood,  which  the  valiant  English  achieve.  We 
bear  and  we  see  examples  of  sagacity  ;  and  we  are  further 
brought  round  to  the  old  confession,  that  we  cannot  cook ; 
Colney  Durance  has  us  there;  we  have  not  studied  herbs 
and  savours:  and  so  we  are  shocked  backward  step  by  step 
until  we  retreat  precipitately  into  the  nooks  where  waxen 
tapers,  carefully  tended  by  writers  on  the  Press,  light-up 
mysterious  images  of  our  national  selves  for  admiration. 
{Something  surely  we  do,  or  we  should  not  be  where  we  are. 
But  what  is  it  we  do  (excepting  cricket,  of  course)  which 
others  cannot  do?  Colney  asks;  and  ho  excludes  cricket  and 
football. 

An  acutely  satiric  man  in  an  English  circle,  that  does  not 
resort  to  the  fist  for  a  reply  to  him,  may  almost  satiate  the 
excessive  fury  roused  in  his  mind  by  an  illogical  people  of 
a  provocative  prosperity,  mainly  tonguele-s  or  of  leaden 
tongue  above  the  pressure  of  their  necessities,  as  he  takes 
them  to  be.  They  give  him  so  many  opportunities.  They 
are  angry  and  helpless  as  the  log  hissing  to  the  saw. 
Their  instinct  to  make  use  of  the  downright  in  retort,  re- 
strained as  it  is  by  a  buttoned  coat  of  civilization,  is 
amusing,  inviting.  Colney  Durance  allured  them  to  the 
quag's  edge  and  plunged  them  in  it,  to  writhe  patriotically  ; 
and  although  it  may  be  said,  that  they  felt  their  situation 
less  than  did  he  the  venom  they  sprang  in  his  blood,  he  was 
cruel ;  he  caused  discomfort.  But  these  good  friends  about 
him  stood  for  the  country,  an  illogical  country  ;  and  as  he 
could  not  well  attack  his  host  Victor  Kadnor,  an  irrational 
man,  he  selected  the  abstract  entity  for  the  discharge  of  his 
honest  Spite.  The  irrational  friend  was  deeper  at  the  source 
of  his  irritation  than  the  illogical  old  motherland.  This 
house  of  Lakelands,  the  senselessness  of  his  friend  in  building 
it  and  designing  to  live  in  it,  after  experiences  of  an  in- 
capacity to  stand  in  a  serene  contention  with  the  world  he 
challenged,  excited  Colney's  wasp.  He  was  punished,  half 
way  to  frenzy  behind  his  placable  demeanour,  by  having  Dr. 
Schlesien  for  chorus.  And  here  again,  it  was  the  unbefitting, 
not  the  person,  which  stirred  his  wrath.  A  German  on 
English  soil  should  remember  the  dues  of  a  guest.  At  the 
same  time,  Colney  said  things  to  snare  the  acclamation  of  an 


70  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

observant  gentleman  of  that  race,  who  is  no  longer  in  his 
first  enthusiasm  for  English  beef  and  the  complexion  of  the 
women.  "  Ah,  ya,  it  is  true,  what  you  say  :  'The  English 
grow  as  fast  as  odders,  but  they  grow  to  horns  instead  of 
trains'  They  are  Bull.  Quaat  true."  He  bellowed  on  a 
laugh  the  last  half  of  the  quotation. 

Colney  marked  him.  His  encounters  with  Fenellan  were 
enlivening  engagements  and  left  no  malice ;  only  a  regret, 
when  the  fencing  passed  his  guard,  that  Fenellan  should 
prefer  to  flash  for  the  minute.  He  would  have  met  a  pert 
defender  of  England,  in  the  person  of  Miss  Priscilla  Graves, 
if  she  had  not  been  occupied  with  observation  of  the  bearing 
of  Lady  Grace  Halley  toward  Mr.  Victor  Radnor ;  which 
displeased  her  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Victor;  she  was  besides 
hostile  by  race  and  class  to  an  aristocratic  assumption  of 
licence.  Sparing  Colney,  she  with  some  scorn  condemned 
Mr.  Pempton  for  allowing  his  country  to  be  ridiculed  with- 
out a  word.  Mr.  Pempton  believed  that  the  Vegetarian 
movement  was  more  progressive  in  England  than  in  other 
lands,  but  he  was  at  the  disadvantage  with  the  fair  Priscilla, 
that  eulogy  of  his  compatriots  on  this  account  would  win 
her  coldest  approval.  "  Satire  was  never  an  argument,"  he 
said,  too  evasively. 

The  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby  received  the  meed  of  her 
smile,  for  saying  in  his  many-fathom  bass,  with  an  eye  on 
Victor :  "  At  least  we  may  boast  of  breeding  men,  who  are 
leaders  of  men." 

The  announcement  of  luncheon,  by  Victor's  butler  Arling- 
ton, opportunely  followed  and  freighted  the  remark  with  a 
happy  recognition  of  that  which  comes  to  us  from  the  hands 
of  conquerors.  Dr.  Schlesien  himself,  no  antagonist  to 
England,  but  like  Colney  Durance,  a  critic,  speculated  in 
view  of  the  spread  of  pic-nic  provision  beneath  the  great  glass 
dome,  as  to  whether  it  might  be,  that  these  English  were  on 
another  start  out  of  the  dust  in  vigorous  commercial  enter- 
prise, under  leadership  of  one  of  their  chance  masterly  minds 
—  merchant,  in  this  instance  :  and  he  debated  within,  whether 
Genius,  occasionally  developed  in  a  surprising  superior 
manner  by  these  haphazard  English,  may  not  sometimes 
wrest  the  prize  from  Method ;  albeit  we  count  for  the  long 
run,  that  Method  has  assurance  of  success,  however  lata  in 
the  race  to  set  forth. 


AN    INSPECTION    OF    LAKELANDS.  71 

Luncheon  was  a  merry  meal,  with  Victor  and  Nataly  for 
host  and  hostess ;  Fenellan,  Colney  Durance,  and  Lady 
Grace  Hal  ley  for  the  talkers.  A  gusty  bos<>m  of  sleet  over- 
hung the  dome,  rattled  on  it,  and  rolling  Westward,  became 
a  radiant  mountain-land,  partly  worthy  of  Victor's  phrase : 
"  A  range  of  Swiss  Alps  in  air." 

"  With  periwigs  Louis  Quatorze  for  peaks,"  Colney  added. 

And  Fenellan  improved  on  him :  "Ora  magnified  Bench 
of  .Indges  at  the  trial  of  your  caerulean  Phryne." 

The  strip  of  white  cloud  flew  on  a  whirl  from  the  blue,  to 
confirm  it. 

But  Victor  and  Lady  Grace  rejected  any  play  of  conceits 
upon  nature.  Violent  and  horrid  interventions  of  the  coun- 
terfeit, such  mad  similes  appeared  to  them,  when  pure  coin 
was  offered.  They  lo-ithed  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby  for 
proclaiming,  that  he  had  seen  "  Chapters  of  Hebrew  History 
in  the  grouping  of  clouds." 

His  gaze  was  any  one  of  the  Chapters  upon  Nesta.  The 
clerical  gentleman's  voice  was  of  a  depth  to  claim  for  it  the 
profoundest  which  can  be  thought  or  uttered ;  and  Nesta's 
tender  youth  had  t  »ken  so  strong  an  impression  of  sacredness 
from  what  Fenellan  called  "  his  chafer  tones,"  that  her  looks 
were  often  given  him  in  gratitude,  for  the  mere  sound. 
Nataly  also  had  her  sense  of  safety  in  acquiescing  to  such  a 
voice  coming  from  such  a  garb.  Consequently,  whenever 
Fenellan  and  Colney  were  at  him,  drawing  him  this  way 
and  that  for  utterances  cathedral  in  sentiment  and  sonorous- 
ness, these  ladies  shed  protecting  beams  ;'  insomuch  that  he 
was  inspired  to  the  agreeable  conceptions  whereof  frequently 
rash  projects  are  an  issue. 

Touching  the  neighbours  of  Lakelands,  they  were  prin- 
cipally enriched  merchants,  it  appeared;  a  snippet  or  two 
of  the  fringe  of  aristocracy  lay  here  and  there  among  them  ; 
and  one  racy-of-the-soil  old  son  of  Thanes,  having  the 
manners  proper  to  last  century's  yeoman.  Mr.  Pempton 
knew  something  of  this  quaint  Squire  of  Hefferstone,  Beaves 
Urmsing  by  name  ;  a  ruddy  man,  right  heartily  Saxon  ;  a 
still  glowing  brand  amid  the  ashes  of  the  Heptarchy  hearth- 
stone ;  who  had  a  song,  The  Marigolds,  which  he  would  troll 
out  for  you  anywhere,  on  any  occasion.  To  have  so  near  to 
the  metropolis  one  from  the  centre  of  the  venerable  rotundity 
of  the  country,  was  rare.     Victor  exclaimed   **  Come  t "   in 


72  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

ravishment  over  the  picturesqueness  of  a  neighbour  carrying 
imagination  away  to  the  founts  of  England;  and  his  look 
«*t  Nataly  proposed.  Her  countenance  was  inapprehensive. 
tie  perceived  resistance,  and  said  :  "  I  have  met  two  or 
three  of  them  in  ihe  train  :  agreeable  men :  Gladding,  the 
banker;  a  general  Fanning;  that  man  Blathenoy,  great 
bill-broker.  But  the  fact  is,  close  on  London,  we're  inde- 
pendent of  neighbours;  we  mean  to  be.  Lakelands  and 
London  practically  join." 

u  The  mother  city  becoming  the  suburb,"  murmured 
Colney,  in  report  of  the  union. 

"  You  must  expect  to  be  invaded,  sir,"  said  Mr.  Sowerby  ; 
and  Yictor  shrugged  :  "  We  are  pretty  safe." 

"  The  lock  of  a  door  seems  a  potent  security  until  some 
one  outside  is  heard  fingering  the  handle  nigh  midnight," 
Fenellan  threw  out  his  airy  nothing  of  a  remark. 

It  struck  on  Nataly's  heart.  "  So  you  will  not  let  us  be 
lonely  here,"  she  said  to  her  guests. 

The  Kev.  Septimus  Bar  in  by  was  mouthpiece  for  congrega- 
tions. Sound  of  a  subterranean  roar,  with  a  blast  at  the 
orifice,  informed  her  of  their  "  very  deep  happiness  in  the 
privilege." 

He  comforted  her.     Nesta  smiled  on  him  thankfully. 

"Don't  imagine,  Mrs.  Victor,  that  you  can  be  shut  off 
from  neighbours,  in  a  house  like  this  ;  and  they  have  a 
claim,"  said  Lady  Grace,  quitting  the  table. 

Fenellan  and  Colney  thought  so: 

"Like  mice  at  a  cupboard." 

"Beetles  in  a  kitchen." 

"  No,  no — no,  no  !  "  Victor  shook  head,  pitiful  over  the 
good  people  likened  to  things  unclean,  and  royally  upraising 
them  :  in  doing  which,  he  scattered  to  vapour  the  leaden 
incubi  they  had  been  upon  his  flatter*moods  of  late.  "  No, 
but  it's  a  rapture  to  breathe  the  air  here  !  "  His  lifted  chest 
and  nostrils  were  for  the  encouragement  of  Nataly  to  soar 
beside  him. 

She  summoned  her  smile  and  nodded. 

He  spoke  aside  *  to  Lady  Grace :  "  The  dear  soul  wants 
time  to  compose  herself  after  a  grand  surprise." 

She  replied  ■  "  I  think  I  could  soon  be  reconciled.  How 
much  land  ?  " 

"  In  treaty  for  some  hundred  and  eighty  or  ninety  acres 


AN   INSPECTION   OF   LAKELANDS.  73 

...  in  all  at  present  three  hundred  and  seventy,  including 
plantations,  lake,  outhouses." 

,k  Large  e trough  ;  land  paying  as  it  does — that  is,  not  pay- 
ing. We  shall  be  having  to  gamble  in  the  City  systemati- 
cally for  subsistence." 

•*  You  will  not  j-o  much  as  jest  on  the  subject." 

Coming  from  such  a  man,  that  was  clear  sky  thunder. 
The  lady  played  it  off  in  a  shadowy  pout  and  shrug  while 
taking  a  stamp  of  his  masterfulness,  not  so  volatile. 

She  said  to  Nataly  :  "  Our  place  in  Worcestershire  is  about 
half  the  size,  if  as  much.  Large  enough  when  we're  not 
crowded  out  with  gout  and  can  open  to  no  one.  Some  day 
you  will  visit  us,  I  hope." 

"  You  we  count  on  here,  Lady  Grace." 

It  was  an  over- accentuated  response ;  unusual  with  this 
well-bred  woman  ;  and  a  bit  of  speech  that  does  not  flow, 
causes  us  to  speculate.  The  lady  resumed :  "  I  value  the 
favour.  We're  in  a  horsey -doggy -foxy  circle  down  there. 
We  want  enlivening.  If  we  had  your  set  of  musicians  and 
talkers  !  " 

Nataly  smiled  in  vacuous  kindness,  at  a  loss  for  the  retort 
of  a  compliment  to  a  person  she  measured.  Lady  Grace 
also  was  an  amiable  hostile  reviewer.  Each  could  see,  to 
have  cited  in  the  other,  defects  common  to  the  lower  species 
of  the  race,  admitting  a  superior  personal  quality  or  two  ; 
which  might  be  pleaded  in  extenuation  ;  and  if  the  apology 
proved  too  effective,  could  be  dispersed  by  instance  upon 
it,  under  an  implied  appeal  to  benevolence.  When  we  have 
not  a  liking  for  the  creature  whom  we  have  no  plain  cause 
to  dislike,  we  are  minutely  just. 

During  the  admiratory  stroll  along  the  ground-floor  rooms, 
Colney  Durance  found  himself  beside  Dr.  Schlesien  ;  the 
latter  smoking,  striding,  emphasizing,  but  bearable,  as  the 
one  of  the  party  who  was  not  perpetually  at  the  gape  in 
lauda^on.  Colney  was  heard  to  say:  "No  doubt:  the 
Gen. .an  is  the  race  the  least  mixed  in  Europe  :  it  might 
challenge  aboriginals  for  that.  Oddly,  it  has  invented  the 
Cyclopaedia  for  knowledge,  the  sausage  for  nutrition  !  How 
would  you  explain  it?  " 

Dr.  Schlesien  replied  with  an  Atlas  shrug  under  fleabito 
to  the  insemately  infantile  interrogation. 

He  in  turn  was  presently  heard. 


74  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

"  Bat,  ray  good  sir !  you  quote  me  your  English  Latin. 
I  must  beg  of  you  you  write  it  down.  It  is  orally  incom- 
prehensiole  to  Continentals." 

"  We  are  Islanders !  "  Colney  shrugged  in  lancjuishment. 

"  Oh,  you  do  great  things  ..."  Dr.  Sohlesien  rejoined 
in  kindness,  making  his  voice  a  musical  intimation  of  the 
smallness  of  the  things. 

"  We  build  great  houses,  to  employ  onr  bricks." 

••  No,  Colney,  to  live  in,"  said  Victor. 

"  Scarcely  long  enough  to  warm  them." 

"  What  do  you  .  .  .  fiddle  !  " 

"  They  are  not  Hohenzollerns !  " 

"  It  is  true,"  Dr.  Schlesien  called.  "  No,  but  you  learn 
discipline;  you  build.  I  say  wid  you.  not  Hohenzollerns 
you  build  !  But  you  shall  look  above  :  Eyes  up.  Ire  necesse 
est.    Good,  but  mount;  you  come  to  something.    Have  ideas." 

"  Good,  but  when  do  we  reach  your  level  ?  " 

"  Sir,  I  do  not  say  more  than  that  we  do  not  want  instruc- 
tion from  foreigners." 

"  Pupil  to  paedagogue  indeed.  You  have  the  wreath  in 
Music,  in  Jurisprudence,  Chemistry,  Scholarship,  Beer,  Arms, 
Manners." 

Dr.  Schlesien  puffed  a  tempest  of  tobacco  and  strode. 

"  He  is  chiselling  for  wit  in  the  Teutonic  block,"  Colney 
eaid,  falling  back  to  Fenellan. 

Fenellan  observed :  "  You  might  have  credited  him  with 
the  finished  sculpture." 

"  They're  ahead  of  us  in  sticking  at  the  charge  of  wit." 

"  They've  a  widening  of  their  swallow  since  Versailles." 

"Ma  Tiers?" 

"  Well,  that's  a  tight  cravat  for  the  Teutonic  thrapple ! 
But  he's  off  by  himself  to  loosen  it." 

Victor  came  on  the  couple  testily.  "  What  are  you  two 
concocting !  I  say,  do  keep  the  peace,  please.  An  excellent 
good  fellow ;  better  up  in  politics  than  any  man  I  know  ; 
understands  music ;  means  well,  you  can  see.  You  two 
hate  a  man  at  all  serious.  And  he  doesn't  bore  with  his 
knowledge.     A  scholar  too." 

"  If  he'll  bring  us  the  atmosphere  of  the  groves  of  Aca- 
deme, he  may  swing  his  ferule  pickled  in  himself,  and 
welcome,"  said  Fenellan.- 

"  Yes !  "  Victor   nodded  at   a   recognized   antagonism  in 


AN    INSPECTION   OF    LAKELANDS.  75 

Fenellan  ;  "but  Colney's  always  lifting  the  Germans  high 
above  us." 

"  It's  to  exercise  his  muscles." 

Victor  headed  to  the  other  apartments,  thinking  that  the 
Rev.  Septimus  and  young  Sowerby,  Old  England  herself, 
were  spared  by  the  diversion  of  these  light  skirmishing 
shots  from  their  accustomed  victims  to  the  masculine  people 
of  our  time.  His  friends  would  want  a  drilling  to  be  of 
aid  to  him  in  his  campaign  to  come.  For  it  was  one,  and 
a  great  one.  He  remembered  his  complete  perception  of 
the  plan,  all  the  elements  of  it,  the  forward  whirling  of  it, 
just  before  the  fall  on  London  Bridge.  The  greatness  of 
his  enterprise  laid  such  hold  of  him  that  the  smallest  of 
obstacles  had  a  villanous  aspect ;  and  when,  as  anticipated, 
Colney  and  Fenellan  were  sultry  flies  for  whomsoever  they 
could  fret,  he  was  blind  to  the  reading  of  absurdities  which 
caused  Fredi's  eyes  to  stream  and  Lady  Grace  beside  him 
to  stand  awhile  and  laugh  out  her  fit.  Young  Sowerby 
appeared  forgiving  enough — he  was  a  perfect  gentleman  : 
but  Fredi's  appalling  sense  of  fun  must  try  him  hard.  And 
those  young  fellows  are  often  more  wounded  by  a  girl's 
thoughtless  laughter  than  by  a  man's  contempt.  Nataly 
should  have  protected  him.  Her  face  had  the  air  of  a 
smiling  general  satisfaction  ;  sign  of  a  pleasure  below  the 
mark  required;  sign  too  of  a  sleepy  partner  for  a  battle. 
Even  in  the  wonderful  kitchen,  arched  and  pillared  (where 
the  explanation  came  to  Nesta  of  Madame  Callet's  frequent 
leave  of  absence  of  late,  when  an  interior  dinner  troubled 
her  father  in  no  degree),  even  there  his  Nataly  listened  to 
the  transports  of  the  guests  with  benign  indulgence. 

"  Mama !  "  said  Nesta,  ready  to  be  entranced  by  kitchens 
in  her  bubbling  animation :  she  meant  the  recalling  of 
instances  of  the  conspirator  her  father  had  been. 

"  You  none  of  you  guessed  Armandine's  business  \  "  Victor 
cried,  in  a  glee  that  pushed  to  make  the  utmost  of  this 
matter  and  count  against  chagrin.  "  She  was  off  to  Paris  ; 
went  to  test  the  last  inventions  : — French  brains  are  always 
alert: — and  in  fact,  those  kitchen-ranges,  gas  and  coal,  and 
the  apparatus  for  warming  plates  and  dishes,  the  whole  of 
the  battel  y  is  on  the  model  of  the  Due  d'Ariane's — finest  in 
Europe.  Well,"  he  agreed  with  Colney,  "  to  say  France  is 
enough," 


76  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Mr.  Pempton  spoke  to  Miss  Graves  of  trie  task  for 
a  woman  to  conduct  a  command  so  extensive.  And,  as 
when  an  inoffensive  wayfarer  has  chanced  to  set  foot  near 
a  wasp's  nest,  out  on  him  came  woman  and  her  champions, 
the  worthy  and  the  sham,  like  a  blast  of  powder. 

Victor  ejaculated  :  M  Armandine  !  "  Whoever  doubted  her 
capacity,  knew  not  Armandine ;  or  not  knowing  Armandine, 
knew  not  the  capacity  in  women. 

With  that  utterance  of  her  name,  he  saw  the  orangey 
spot  on  London  Bridge,  and  the  sinking  Tower  and  masts 
and  funnels,  and  the  rising  of  them,  on  his  return  to  his 
legs;  he  recallected,  that  at  the  very  edge  of  the  fall  he  had 
Armandine  strongly  in  his  mind.  She  was  to  do  her  part : 
Fenellan  and  Colney  on  the  surface,  she  below :  and 
hospitality  was  to  do  its  part,  and  music  was  impressed — - 
the  innocent  Concerts ;  his  wealth,  all  his  inventiveness 
were  to  serve; — and  merely  to  attract  and  win  the  tastes 
of  people,  for  a  social  support  to  Lakelands  !  Merely  that  ? 
Much  more: — if  Nataly's  coldness  to  the  place  would  but 
allow  him  to  form  an  estimate  of  how  much.  At  the  same 
time,  being  in  the  grasp  of  his  present  disappointment,  he 
perceived  a  meanness  in  the  result,  that  was  astonishing  and 
afflicting.  He  had  not  ever  previously  felt  imagination 
starving  at  the  vision  of  success.  Victor  had  yet  to  learn, 
that  the  man  with  a  material  object  in  aim,  is  the  man  of 
his  object ;  and  the  nearer  to  his  mark,  often  the  farther  is 
he  from  a  sober  self;  he  is  more  the  arrow  of  his  bow  than 
bow  to  his  arrow.  This  we  pay  for  scheming :  and  success 
is  costly  ;  we  find  we  have  pledged  the  better  half  of  our- 
selves to  clutch  it;  not  to  be  redeemed  with  the  whole 
handful  of  our  prize  !  He  was,  however,  learning  after  his 
leaping  fashion.  Nataly's  defective  sympathy  made  him 
look  at  things  through  the  feelings  she  depressed.  A 
shadow  of  his  missed  Idea  on  London  Bridge  seemed  to 
cross  him  from  the  close  flapping  of  a  wing  within  reach. 
He  could  say  only,  that  it  would,  if  caught,  have  been  an 
answer  to  the  thought  disturbing  him. 

Nataly  drew  Colney  Durance  with  her  eyes  to  step  beside 
her,  on  the  descent  to  the  terrace.  Little  Skepsey  hove  in 
sight,  coming  swift  as  the  point  of  an  outrigger  over  the 
flood. 


i    77    ) 
CHAPTER  X. 

SKEPSEY   IN   MOTION. 

The  bearer  of  his  master's  midday  letters  from  London  shot 
beyond  Nataly  as  soon  as  seen,  with  an  apparent  snap  of  his 
body  in  passing.  He  steamed  to  the  end  of  the  terrace  and 
delivered  the  packet,  returning  at  the  same  rate  of  speed,  to 
do  proper  homage  to  the  lady  he  so  much  respected.  He 
had  left  the  railway-station  on  foot  instead  of  taking  a  fly, 
because  of  a  calculation  that  he  would  save  three  minutes; 
which  he  had  not  lost  for  having  to  come  through  the  rain- 
cloud.  "  Perhaps  the  contrary,"  Skepsey  said :  it  might  be 
judged  to  have  accelerated  his  course  :  and  his  hat  dripped, 
and  his  coat  shone,  and  he  soaped  his  hands,  cheerful  as  an 
ouzel-cock  when  the  sun  is  out  again. 

"  Many  cracked  crowns  lately,  in  the  Manly  Art?"  Colney 
inquired  of  him.  And  Skepsey  answered  with  precision  of 
statement :  "  Crowns,  no,  sir  ;  the  nose,  it  may  happen  ;  but 
it  cannot  be  said  to  be  the  rule." 

"You  are  of  opinion,  that  the  practice  of  Scientific  Pugil- 
ism offers  us  compensation  for  the  broken  bridge  of  a  nose?" 

"  In  an  increase  of  manly  self-esteem  :  I  do,  sir,  yes." 

Skepsey  was  shy  of  this  gentleman's  bite  ;  and  he  fancied 
his  defense  had  been  correct.  Perceiving  a  crumple  of  the  lips 
of  Mr.  Durance,  he  took  the  attitude  of  a  watchful  dubiety. 

"But,  my  goodness,  you  are  wet  through  !  "  cried  Nataly, 
reproaching  herself  for  the  tardy  compassion  ;  uid  Nesta  ran 
up  to  them  and  heaped  a  thousand  pities  on  her  "  poor  dear 
Skip,''  and  drove  him  in  beneath  the  glass-dome  to  the  frag- 
ments of  pic-nic,  and  poured  champagne  for  him,  "  lest  his 
wife  should  have  to  doctor  him  for  a  cold,"  and  poured 
afresh,  when  he  had  obeyed  her :  *'  for  the  toastiug  of  Lake- 
lands, dear  Skepsey !  "  impossible  to  resist :  so  he  drank,  and 
blinked;  and  was  then  told,  that  before  using  his  knife  and 
fork  he  must  betake  himself  to  some  fire  of  shavings  and 
chips,  where  coffee  was  being  made,  for  the  purpose  of  drying 
his  clothes.  But  this  he  would  not  hear  of :  he  was  pledged 
to  business,  to  convey  his  master's  letters,  and  he  might 
have  to  catch  a  train  by  the  last  quarter-minute,  unless  it 


78  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

was  behind  the  time-tables;  he  ranst  hold  himself  ready  to 
start.  Entreated,  adjured,  commanded,  Skepsey  eommisera- 
tingly  obsrved  to  Colney  Durance,  "  The  ladies  do  not 
understand,  sir  !  "  For  Turk  of  Constantinople  had  never  a 
more  haremed  opinion  of  the  unfitness  of  women  in  the  brave 
world  of  action.  The  persistence  of  these  ladies  endeavouring 
to  prevent  him  in  the  couise  of  his  duty,  must  have  suc- 
ceeded save  that  for  one  word  of  theirs  he  had  two,  and 
twice  the  promptitude  of  motion.  He  explained  to  them,  as 
to  good  children,  that  the  loss  of  five  minutes  might  be  the 
loss  of  a  Post,  the  loss  of  thousands  of  pounds,  the  loss  of  the 
character  of  a  Firm  ;  and  he  was  away  to  the  terrace.  Nesta 
headed  him  and  waved  him  back.  She  and  her  mother 
rebuked  him  :  they  called  him  unreasonable ;  wherein  they 
resembled  the  chief  example  of  the  sex  to  him,  in  a  wife  he 
had  at  home,  who  levelled  that  charge  against  her  husband 
when  most  she  needed  discipline  : — the  woman  laid  hand  on 
the  very  word  legitimately  his  own  for  the  justification  of 
his  process  with  her. 

"  But,  Skips !  if  you  are  ill  and  we  have  to  nurse  you ! n 
said  Nesta. 

She  forgot  the  hospital,  he  told  her  cordially,  and  laughed 
at  the  notion  of  a  ducking  producing  a  cold  or  a  cold  a  fever, 
or  anything  consumption,  with  him.  So  the  ladies  had  to 
keep  down  their  anxious  minds  and  allow  him  to  stand  in 
wet  clothing  to  eat  his  cold  pie  and  salad. 

Miss  Priscilla  Graves  entering  to  them,  became  a  witness 
that  they  were  seductresses  for  inducing  him  to  drink  wine 
— and  a  sparkling  wine. 

"  It  isi  to  warm  him,"  they  pleaded  ;  and  she  said :  "  He 
trust  b©  warm  from  his  walk;"  and  they  said  :  "But  he  is 
t  it;"  and  said  she,  without  a  show  of  feeling:  "Warm 
water,  then;"  and  Skepsey  writhed,  as  if  in  the  grasp  of 
anatomists,  at  being  the  subject  of  female  contention  or 
humane  consideration.  Miss  Graves  caught  signs  of  the 
possible  proselyte  in  him;  she  remarked  encouragingly  :  "I 
am  sure  he  does  not  like  it;  he  still  has  a  natural  taste." 

She  distressed  his  native  politeness,  for  the  glass  was  in 
his  hand,  and  he  was  fully  aware  of  her  high- principled  aver- 
sion; and  he  profoundly  bowed  to  principles,  believing  his 
England  to  be  pillared  on  them ;  and  the  lady  looked  like 
one  who  bore  the  standard  of  a  principle ;  and  if  we  slap  and 


BKEPSEY    IN    MOTION.  79 

pinr-h  and  starve  our  appetites,  the  idea  of  a  principle  seems 
emering  us  to  support.  Subscribing;  to  a  principle,  out- 
energies  are  refreshed ;  we  have  a  faith  in  the  country  that 
was  not  with  us  before  the  act ;  and  of  a  real  well-founded 
faith  come  the  glowing  thoughts  which  we  have  at  times: 
thoughts  of  England  heading  the  nations ;  when  the  smell 
of  an  English  lane  under  showers  challenges  Eden,  and  the 
threading  of  a  London  crowd  tunes  discords  to  the  swell  of  a 
cathedral  organ.  It  may  be,  that  by  the  renunciation  of  any 
description  of  alcohol,  a  man  will  stand  clearer-headed  to 
serve  his  countr}7.  He  may  expect  to  have  a  clearer  memory, 
for  certain  :  he  will  not  be  asking  himself,  unable  to  decide, 
whether  his  master  named  a  Mr.  Journeyman  or  a  Mr.  Jarni- 
man,  as  the  person  he  declined  to  receive.  Either  of  the  two  is 
repulsed  upon  his  application,  owing  to  the  guilty  similarity 
of  sounds :  but  what  we  are  to  think  of  is,  our  own  sad 
state  of  inefficiency  in  failing  to  remember ;  which  accuses 
our  physical  condition,  therefore  our  habits. — Thus  the  little 
man  debated,  scarcely  requiring  more  than  to  hear  the  right 
word,  to  be  a  convert  and  make  him  a  garland  of  the  prose- 
lyte's fetters. 

Destructively  for  the  cause  she  advocated,  Miss  Priscilla 
gestured  the  putting  forth  of  an  abjuring  hand,  with  the 
recommendation  to  him,  so  to  put  aside  temptation  that 
instant;  and  she  signified  in  a  very  ugly  jerk  of  her  features, 
the  vilely  filthy  stuff  Morality  thought  it,  however  pleasing 
it  might  be  to  a  palate  corrupted  by  indulgence  of  the  sensual 
appetites. 

But  the  glass  had  been  handed  to  him  by  the  lady  he 
respected,  who  looked  angelical  in  offering  it,  divinely  other 
than  ugly ;  and  to  her  he  could  not  be  discourteous;  not  even 
to  pay  his  homage  to  the  representative  of  a  principle.  He 
bowTed  to  Miss  Graves,  and  drank,  and  rushed  forth ;  hearing 
shouts  behind  him. 

His  master  had  a  packet  of  papers  ready,  easy  for  the 
pocket. 

"  By  the  way,  Skepsey,"  he  said,  *'if  a  man  named  Jarni- 
man  should  call  at  the  office,  I  will  see  him." 

Skepsey's  grey  eyes  came  out. 

— Or  was  it  Journeyman,  that  his  master  would  not  see; 
and  Jarniman  that  he  would  ? 

His  habit  of  obedience,  pride  of  apprehension,  and  the 


80  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUEEORS. 

time  to  catch  the  train,  forbade  inquiry.  Besides  he  knew 
of  himself  of  old,  that  his  puzzles  were  best  unriddled 
running. 

The  quick  of  pace  are  soon  in  the  quick  of  thoughts. 

Jarniman,  then,  was  a  man  whom  his  master,  not  wanting 
to  see,  one  day,  and  wanting  to  see,  on  another  day,  might 
wish  to  conciliate :  a  case  of  policy.  Let  Jarniman  go. 
Journeyman,  on  the  other  hand,  was  nobody  at  all,  a  ghost 
of  the  fancy.  Yet  this  Journeyman  was  as  important  an 
individual,  he  was  a  dread  reality ;  more  important  to 
Skepsey  in  the  light  of  patriot :  and  only  in  that  light  was 
he  permitted  of  a  scrupulous  conscience  and  modest  mind  to 
think  upon  himself  when  the  immediate  subject  was  his 
master's  interests.  For  this  Journeyman  had  not  an  excuse 
for  existence  in  Mr.  Radnor's  pronunciation  :  he  was  born 
of  the  buzz  of  a  troubled  ear,  coming  of  a  disordered  brain, 
consequent  necessarily  upon  a  disorderly  stomach,  that  might 
protest  a  degree  of  comparative  innocence,  but  would  be 
shamed  utterly  under  inspection  of  the  eye  of  a  lady  of 
piinciple. 

What,  then,  was  the  value  to  his  country  of  a  servant  who 
could  not  accurately  recollect  his  master's  words !  Miss 
Graves  within  him  a*ked  the  rapid  little  man,  whether 
indeed  his  ideas  were  his  own  after  draughts  of  champagne. 

The  ideas,  excited  to  an  urgent  animation  by  his  racing 
trot,  were  a  quiverful  in  flight  over  an  England  terrible 
to  the  foe  and  dancing  on  the  green.  Eight  so :  but  would 
we  keep-up  the  dance,  we  must  be  red  iron  to  touch  :  and 
the  fighter  for  conquering  is  the  one  who  can  last  and  has 
the  open  brain; — and  there  you  have  a  point  against  alcohol. 
Yes,  and  Miss  Graves,  if  she  would  press  it,  with  her  natural 
face,  could  be  pleasant  and  persuasive  :  and  she  ought  to  be 
told  she  ought  to  marry,  for  the  good  of  the  country.  Women 
taking  liquor : — Skepsey  had  a  vision  of  his  wife  with 
rheumy  peepers  oblique  and  miauly  mouth,  as  he  had  once 
beheld  the  creature  : — Oh !  they  need  discipline :  not  sucli 
would  we  have  for  the  mothers  of  our  English  young. 
Decidedly  the  women  of  principle  are  bound  to  enter  wed- 
lock ;  they  should  be  bound  by  law.  Whereas,  in  the  oppo- 
sing case — the  binding  of  the  unprincipled  to  a  celibate  state 
—  such  a  law  would  have  saved  Skepsey  from  the  necessi- 
tated  commission   of  deeds   of  discipline   with  one   of  the 


SKEPSEY   IN   MOTION.  81 

female  sex,  and  have  rescued  his  progeny  from  a  likeness  to 
the  corn-stalk  reverting  to  weed.  He  had  but  a  son  for 
England's  defense ;  and  the  frame  of  his  boy  might  be  set 
quaking  by  a  thump  on  the  wind  of  a  drum  ;  the  courage  of 
William  Barlow  Skepsey  would  not  stand  against  a  sheep  ; 
it  would  wind-up  hares  to  have  a  run  at  him  out  in  the 
field.  Offspring  of  a  woman  of  principle  !  .  .  .  but  there  is 
no  rubbing  out  in  life:  why  dream  of  it?  Only  that  one 
would  not  have  one's  country  the  loser ! 

Dwell  a  moment  on  the  reverse  : — and  first  remember  the 
lesson  of  the  Captivity  of  the  Jews  and  the  outcry  of  their 
backsliding  and  repentance  : — see  a  nation  of  the  honourably 
begotten ;  muscular  men  disdaining  the  luxuries  they  will 
occasionally  condescend  to  taste,  like  some  tribe  in  Greece ; 
boxers,  rowers,  runners,  climbers;  braced,  indomitable;  mag- 
nanimous, as  only  the  strong  can  be;  an  army  at  word, 
winning  at  a  stroke  the  double  battle  of  the  hand  and  the 
hart:  men  who  can  walk  the  paths  through  the  garden  of 
the  pleasures.  They  receive  fitting  mates,  of  a  build  to 
promise  or  aid  in  ensuring  depth  of  chest  and  long  reach  of 
arm  for  their  progeny. 

Down  goes  the  world  before  them. 

And  we  see  how  much  would  be  due  for  this  to  a  corps  of 
ladies  like  Miss  Graves,  not  allowed  to  remain  too  long  on 
the  stalk  of  spinsterhood.  Her  age  might  count  twenty- 
eight  :  too  long !  She  should  be  taught  that  men  can,  though 
truly  ordinary  women  cannot,  walk  these  orderly  paths 
through  the  garden.  An  admission  to  women,  hinting  re- 
strictions, on  a  ticket  marked  **  in  moderation  "  (meaning,  that 
they  may  pluck  a  flower  or  fruit  along  the  pathway  border 
to  which  they  are  confined),  speedily,  alas,  exhibits  them  at 
a  mad  scramble  across  the  pleasure-beds.  They  know  not 
moderation.  Neither  for  their  own  sakes  nor  for  the  sakes 
of  Posterity  will  they  hold  from  excess,  when  they  are  not 
pledged  to  shun  it.  The  reason  is,  that  their  minds  cannot 
conceive  the  abstract,  as  men  do. 

But  there  are  grounds  for  supposing  that  the  example 
before  them  of  a  sex  exercising  self-control  in  freedom,  would 
induce  women  to  pledge  themselves  to  a  similar  abnegation, 
until  they  gain  some  sense  of  touch  upon  the  impalpable 
duty  to  the  generations  coming  after  us: — thanks  to  the 
voluntary  example  we  set  them. 

i 


82  ONE    OF    OVR    CONQUERORS. 

The  stupendous  task,  which  had  hitherto  baffled  Skepsey 
in  the  course  of  conversational  remonstrances  with  his  wife; 
— that  of  getting  the  Idea  of  Posterity  into  the  understand- 
ing of  its  principal  agent,  might  then  be  mastered. 

Therefore  clearly  men  have  to  begin  the  salutary  move- 
ment :  it  manifestly  devolves  upon  them.  Let  them  at  once 
take  to  rigorous  physical  training.  Women  under  com- 
pulsion, as  vessels  :  men  in  their  magnanimity,  patriotically, 
voluntarily. 

Miss  Giaves  must  have  had  an  intimation  for  him;  he 
gue-sed  it;  and  it  plunged  him  into  a  conflict  with  her, 
that  did  not  suffer  him  to  escape  without  ruefully  feeling 
the  feebleness  of  his  vocabulary  :  and  consequently  he  made 
a  reluctant  appeal  to  figures,  and  it  hung  upon  the  bolder 
exhibition  of  lists  and  tables  as  to  whether  he  was  beaten ; 
and  if  beaten,  he  Mas  morally  her  captive ;  and  this  being 
the  case,  nothing  could  be  more  repulsive  to  Skepsey ;  seeing 
that  he,  unable  of  his  nature  passively  or  partially  to  under- 
take a  line  of  conduct,  beheld  himself  wearing  a  detestable 
'  ribbon,'  for  sign  of  an  oath  quite  needlessly  sworn  (simply 
to  satisfy  the  lady  overcoming  him  with  nimbler  tongue), 
and  blocking  the  streets,  marching  in  bands  beneath  banners, 
howling  hymns. 

Statistics,  upon  which  his  master  and  friends,  after  ex- 
changing opinions  in  argument,  always  fell  back,  frightened 
him.  As  long  as  they  had  no  opponents  of  their  own  kind, 
they  swept  the  field,  they  were  intelligible,  as  the  word 
*  principle'  had  become.  But  the  appearance  of  one  body 
of  Statistics  invariably  brought  up  another  ;  and  the  strokes 
and  counterstrokes  were  like  a  play  of  quarter-staff  on  the 
sconce,  to  knock  all  comprehension  out  of  Skepsey.  Other- 
wise he  would  not  unwillingly  have  inquired  to-morrow 
into  the  Statistics  of  the  controversy  between  the  waters  of 
the  wells  and  of  the  casks,  prepared  to  walk  over  to  the 
victorious,  however  objectionable  that  proceeding.  He  hoped 
to  question  his  master  some  day  :  except  that  his  master 
would  very  naturally  have  a  tendency  to  sum- up  in  favour 
of  wine--good  wine,  in  moderation;  just  as  Miss  Graves  for 
the  cup  of  tea — not  so  thoughtfully  stipulating  that  it  should 
be  good  and  not  too  copious.  Statistics  are  according  to 
their  conjurors ;  they  are  not  independent  bodies,  with  native 
colours ;  they  needs  must  be  painted  by  the  different  hands 


SKEPSEY    IN    MOTION.  83 

thoy  pa^s  through,  and  they  may  be  multiplied  ;  a  nought 
or  so  counts  for  nothing  with  the  teller.  Skepsey  saw  that. 
Yet.  they  can  overcome :  even  as  fictitious  battalions,  they 
can  overcome.  He  shrank  from  the  results  of  a  ciphering 
match  having  him  for  object,  and  was  ashamed  of  feeling  to 
Statistics  as  women  to  giants  ;  nevertheless  he  acknowledged 
that  the  badge  was  upon  him,  if  Miss  Graves  should  beat 
her  master  in  her  array  of  figures,  to  insist  on  his  wearing 
it,  as  she  would,  she  certainly  would.  And  against  his 
internal  conviction  perhaps ;  with  the  knowledge  that  the 
figures  were  an  unfortified  displa}',  and  his  oath  of  bondage 
an  unmanly  servility,  the  silliest  of  ceremonies !  He  was 
shockingly  feminine  to  Staistics. 

Mr.  Durance  despised  them :  he  called  them,  arguing 
against  Mr.  Eadnor,  "  those  emotional  things,"  not  compre- 
hensibly to  Skepsey.  But  Mr.  Durance,  a  very  clever  gentle- 
man, could  not  be  right  in  everything.  He  made  strange 
remarks  upon  his  country.  Dr.  Yatt  attributed  them  to 
the  state  of  his  digestion. 

And  Mr.  Fenellan  had  said  of  Mr.  Durance  that,  as  "  a 
barrister  wanting  briefs,  the  speech  in  him  had  been  bottled 
too  long  and  was  an  overripe  wine  dripping  sour  drops 
through  the  rotten  cork."  Mr.  Fenellan  said  it  laughing, 
he  meant  no  harm.  Skepsey  was  suie  he  had  the  words. 
He  heard  no  more  than  other  people  hear;  he  remembered 
whole  sentences,  and  many  :  on  one  of  his  runs,  this  active 
little  machine,  quickened  by  motion  to  fire,  revived  the 
audible  of  years  back  ;  whatever  suited  his  turn  of  mind  at 
the  moment  rushed  to  the  rapid  wheels  within  him.  His 
master's  business  and  friends,  his  country's  welfare  and 
advancement,  these,  with  records,  items,  anticipations,  of 
the  manlier  sports  to  decorate,  were  his  current  themes ;  all 
being  chopped  and  tossed  and.mixed  in  salad  accordance  by  v 
his  fervour  of  velocity.  And  if  you  would  like  a  further 
definition  of  Genius,  think  of  it  as  a  form  of  swiftness.  It  is 
the  lively  young  great-grandson,  in  the  brain,  of  the  travel- 
ling force  which  mathematicians  put  to  paper,  in  a  row  of  / 
astounding  ciphers,  for  the  motion  of  earth  through  space;  to  J 
the  generating  of  heat,  whereof  is  multiplication,  whereof  de-  I 
posited  matter,  and  so  your  chaos,  your  half-lighted  labyrinth, 
your  ceaseless  pressure  to  evolvement ;  and  then  Light,  and 
60  Creation,  order,  the  work  of  Genius.     Wha*.  do  you  say  ? 


84  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Without  having  a  great  brain,  the  measure  of  it  possessed 
by  Skepsey  was  alive  under  strong  illumination.  In  his 
heart,  while  doing  penance  for  his  presumptu -usness,  he 
believed  that  he  could  lead  regiments  of  men.  He  was  not 
the  army's  General,  he  was  the  General's  Lieutenant,  now 
and  then  venturing  to  suggest  a  piece  of  counsel  to  his  Chief. 
On  his  own  particular  drilled  regiments,  his  Chief  may  rely  ; 
and  on  his  knowledge  of  the  country  of  the  campaign,  roads, 
morasses,  masking  hills,  dividing  rivers.  He  had  mapped 
for  himself  mentally  the  battles  of  conquerors  in  his  favourite 
historic  reading  ;  and  he  understood  the  value  of  a  plan,  and 
the  danger  of  sticking  to  it,  and  the  advantage  of  a  big 
army  for  flanking  ;  and  he  manoeuvred  a  small  one  cnnningly 
to  make  it  a  bolt  at  the  telling  instant.  Dartrey  Fenellan 
had  explained  to  him  Frederick's  oblique  attack.  Napoleon's 
employment  of  the  artillery  arm  preparatory  to  the  hurling 
of  the  cataract  on  the  spot  of  weakness,  Wellington's  parallel 
march  with  Marmont  up  to  the  hour  of  the  decisive  cut 
through  the  latter  at  Salamanca ;  and  Skepsey  treated  his 
enemy  to  the  like,  defeientially  reporting  the  engagement 
to  a  Chief  whom  his  modesty  kept  in  eminence,  for  the 
receiving  of  the  principal  honours.  As  to  his  men,  of  all 
classes  and  sorts,  they  are  so  supple  with  training  that  they 
sustain  a  defeat  like  the  sturdy  pugilist  a  knock  off  his  legs, 
and  up  smiling  a  minute  after — one  of  the  truly  beautiful 
eights  on  this  earth  !  They  go  at  the  double  half  a  day, 
never  sounding  a  single  pair  of  bellows  among  them.  They 
have  their  appetites  in  full  control,  to  eat  when  they  canj 
or  cheerfully  fast.  They  have  healthy  frames,  you  see  ;  and 
as  the  healthy  frame  is  not  artificially  heated,  it  ensues  that, 
under  any  title  you  like,  they  profess  the  principles — into 
the  bog  we  go,  we  have  got  round  to  it ! — the  principles  of 
those  horrible  marching  and  chanting  people ! 

Then,  must  our  England,  to  be  redoubtable  to  the  enemy, 
be  a  deti  stable  country  for  habitation  ? 

Here  was  a  knot. 

Skepsey's  head  dropped  lower,  he  went  as  a  ram.  The 
sayings  of  Mr.  Durance  about  his  dear  England: — that  "her 
remainder  of  life  is  in  the  activity  of  her  diseases  "  : — that 
"she  has  so  fed  upon  Pap  of  Compromise  as  to  be  unabL 
any  longer  to  conceive  a  muscular  resolution": — that"slu- 
is  animated  only  as  the  carcase  to  the  blow-fly " ;  and  so 


SKEPSEV   IN   MOTION.  85 

forth  : — charged  on  him  during  his  wrestle  with  his  problem. 
And  the  gentleman  had  said,  had  permitted  himself  to  say, 
that  our  England's  recent  history  was  a  provincial  apothecary's 
exhibition  of  the  battle  of  bane  and  antidote.  Mr.  Durance 
could  hardly  mean  it.  But  how  could  <>ne  answer  him  when 
he  spoke  of  the  torpor  of  the  people,  and  of  the  succeeding 
Governments  as  a  change  of  lacqueys — or  the  purse-string's 
lacqueys?  He  .-aid,  that  Old  England  has  taken  to  the 
arm-chair  for  g<>od,  and  thinks  it  her  whole  business  to 
pronounce  opinions  and  listen  to  herself;  and  that,  in  the 
lace  of  an  armed  Europe,  this  great  nation  is  living  on 
sufferance.     Oh ! 

Skepsey  had  uttered  the  repudiating  exclamati  m. 

"Feel  quite  np  to  it?  "  he  was  a^vked  by  his  neighbour. 

The  mover  of  armed  hosts  fur  the  defence  of  the  country 
sat  in  a  third-class  carriage  of  the  train,  approaching  the 
first  of  the  stations  on  the  way  to  town.  He  was  instantly 
up  to  the  level  of  an  external  world,  and  fell  into  give  and 
take  with  a  burly  broad  communicative  man ;  located  in 
London,  but  born  in  the  North,  in  view  of  Durham  cathedral, 
as  he  thanked  his  Lord;  who  was  of  the  order  of  pork- 
butcher;  which  succulent  calling  had  carried  him  down  to 
near  upon  the  borders  of  Surrey  and  Sussex,  some  miles 
beyond  the  new  big  house  of  a  Mister  whose  name  he  had 
forgotten,  though  he  had  heard  it  mentioned  by  an  acquain- 
tance interested  in  the  gentleman's  doings.  But  his  object 
was  to  have  a  look  at  a  rare  breed  of  swine,  worth  the 
journey;  that  didn't  run  to  fat  so  much  as  to  flavour,  had 
longer  legs,  sharp  snouts  to  plump  their  hams;  over  from 
Spain,  it  seemed ;  and  the  gentleman  owning  them  was  for 
selling  them,  finding  them  wild  past  correction.  But  the 
acquaintance  mentioned,  who  was  down  to  visit  t'other 
gentleman's  big  new  edifice  in  workman's  hands,  had  a 
mother,  who  had  been  cook  to  a  family,  and  was  now  widow 
of  a  cook's  shop;  ham,  beef,  and  sauces,  prime  pies  to 
order ;  and  a  good  specimen  herself ;  and  if  ever  her  son  saw 
her  spirit  at  his  bedside,  there  wouldn't  be  room  for  much 
else  in  that  chamber — supposing  us  to  keep  our  shapes.  But 
he  was  the  right  sort  of  son,  anxious  to  push  his  mothers 
shop  where  he  saw  a  chance,  and  do  it  cheap;  and  those 
foreign  pigs,  after  a  disappointment  to  their  importer,  might 
be  had  pretty  cheap,  and  were  accounted  tasty. 


86  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Skepsey's  main  thought  was  upon  war:  the  man  hnd 
discoursed  of  pigs. 

He  informed  the  man  of  his  having  heard  from  a  scholar, 
that  pigs  had  been  the  cause  of  more  bloody  battles  than  any 
other  animal. 

How  so?  the  pork-butcher  asked,  and  said  he  was  not 
much  of  a  scholar,  and  pigs  might  be  provoking,  but  he  had 
not  heard  they  were  a  cause  of  strife  between  man  and  man. 
For  possession  of  them,  Skepsey  explained.  Oh!  possession! 
Why,  we've  heard  of  bloody  battles  for  the  possession  of 
women !  Men  will  fight  for  almost  anything  they  care  to 
get  or  call  their  own,  the  pork-butcher  said  ;  and  he  praised 
Old  England  for  avoiding  war.  Skepsey  nodded.  How  if  war 
is  forced  on  us  ? — Then  we  fight. — Suppose  we  are  not  pre- 
pared ? — We  soon  get  that  up.—  Skepsey  requested  him  to  state 
the  degree  of  resistance  he  might  think  he  could  bring  against 
a  pair  of  skilful  fists,  in  a  place  out  of  hearing  of  the  police, 

"  Say,  you ! "  said  the  pork-butcher,  and  sharply  smiled,  for 
he  was  a  man  of  size. 

"  I  would  give  you  two  minutes,"  rejoined  Skepsey,  eyeing 
him  intently  and  kindly :  insomuch  that  it  could  be  St.  en  he 
was  not  in  the  conundrum  vein. 

"  Kather  short  allowance,  eh,  master  ? "  said  the  bigger 
man.  *'  Feel  here ; "  he  straightened  out  his  arm  and 
doubled  it,  raising  a  proud  bridge  of  muscle. 

Skepsey  performed  the  national  homage  to  muscle.  "  Twice 
that,  would  not  help  without  the  science,"  he  remarked,  and 
let  his  arm  be  gripped  in  turn. 

The  pork-butcher's  throat  sounded,  as  it  were,  commas  and 
colons,  punctuations  in  his  reflections,  while  he  tightened 
fingers  along  the  iron  lump.  "  Stringy.  You're  a  wiry  one, 
no  mistake."  It  was  encomium.  With  the  ingrained  con- 
tempt of  size  for  a  smallness  that  has  not  yet  taught  it  the 
prostrating  lesson,  he  said :  "  Weight  tells." 

"In  a  wrestle,"  Skepsey  admitted.  "Allow  me  to  say, 
you  would  not  touch  me." 

"  And  how  do  you  know  I'm  not  a  trifle  handy  with  the 
maulers  myself?  " 

"  You  will  pardon  me  for  saying,  it  would  be  worse  for 
you  if  you  were." 

The  pork-butcher  was  flung  backward.  "  Are  you  a  Pro- 
fessor, may  I  inquire  ?  " 


SKEPSEY   IN    MOTION.  87 

Skepsey  rejected  the  title.  "  I  can  engage  to  teach  young 
men,  upon  a  proper  observance  of  first  principles." 

"  They  be  hanged  !  "  cried  the  ruffled  pork-butcher.  "  Our 
best  men  never  got  it  out  of  books.  Now,  you  tell  me — 
you've  got  a  spiflicating  style  of  talk  about  you  : — no  brag, 
you  tell  me — court*,  the  best  man  wins,  if  you  mean  that  : — 
now,  if  I  was  one  of  'em,  and  I  fetches  you  a  bit  of  a  flick, 
how  then  ?  Would  you  be  ready  to  step  out  with  a  real 
Professor  ?  " 

"I  should  claim  a  fair  field,"  was  the  answer,  made  in 
modesty. 

*'  And  you'd  expect  to  whop  me  with  they  there  principles 
of  yours?" 

"  1  should  expect  to." 

"Bang  me  !  "  was  roared.  After  a  stare  at  the  mild  little 
figure  with  the  fitfully  dead-levelled  large  grey  eyes  in  front 
of  him,  the  pork-butcher  resumed:  "Take  you  for  the  man 
you  say  you  be,  you're  just  the  man  for  my  friend  Jam  and 
me.  He  dearly  loves  to  see  a  set-to,  self  the  same.  What 
prettier?  And  if  you  would  be  so  obliging  some  day  as  to 
favour  us  with  a  display,  we'd  head  a  cap  conformably, 
whether  you'd  the  best  of  it,  according  to  your  expectations, 
or  t'other  way  : — For  there  never  wms  shame  in  a  jolly  good 
licking !  as  the  song  says :  that  is,  if  you  take  it  and  make 
it  appear  jolly  good. — And  find  you  an  opponent  meet  and  fit, 
never  doubt.     Ever  had  the  worse  of  an  encounter,  sir  ?  " 

"  Often,  sir." 

"Well,  that's  good.  And  it  didn't  destroy  your  con- 
fidence ?  " 

"  Added  to  it,  I  hope." 

At  this  point,  it  became  a  crying  necessity  for  Skepsey  to 
escape  from  an  area  of  boastfulness,  into  which  he  had  fallen 
inadvertently;  and  he  hastened  to  apologize  'fur  his  per- 
gonal reference,'  that  was  intended  for  an  illustration  of  our 
country  caught  unawares  by  a  highly  trained  picked  soldiery, 
inferior  in  numbers  to  the  patriotic  levies,  but  sharp  at  the 
edge  and  knowing  how  to  strike.  Measure  the  axe,  inea«ure 
the  tree  ;  and  which  goes  down  first  ? 

"  Invasion,  is  it  ? — and  you  mean,  we're  not  to  hit  back  ?" 
the  pork-butcher  bellowed,  and  presently  secured  a  mur- 
mured approbation  from  an  audience  of  three,  that  had  begun 
to  comprehend  the  dialogue,  and  strengthened  him  in  a  manner 


58  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

to  teach.  Skepsey  the  foolishness  of  ever  urging  analogies  of 
too  extended  a  circle  to  close  sharply  on  the  mark.  He  bad 
no  longer  a  chance,  he  was  overborne,  identified  with  the 
fated  invader,  1  oiled  away  into  the  chops  of  the  Channel,  to 
be  swallowed  up  entire,  and  not  a  rag  left  of  him,  but.  John 
Bull  tucking  up  his  shirt-sleeves  on  the  shingle  beach, 
ready  for  a  second  or  a  third  ;  crying  to  them  to  come  on. 

Warmed  by  his  Bullish  victory,  and  friendly  to  the  van- 
quished, the  poik-burcher  told  Skepsey  he  should  like  to  see 
more  of  him,  and  introduce*}  himself  on  a  card :  Benjamin 
Shaplow,  not  far  from  the  Bank. 

They  parted  at  the  Terminus,  where  three  shrieks  of  an 
engine,  sounding  like  merry  messages  of  the  damned  to 
their  congeners  in  the  anticipatory  stench  of  the  cab-drop- 
pings above,  disconnected  sane  hearing;  perverted  it,  no 
doubt.  Or  else  it  was  the  stamp  of  a  particular  name  on  his 
mind,  which  impie-sed  Skepsey,  as  he  bored  down  the  street 
and  across  the  bridge,  to  fancy  in  recollection,  that  Mr.  Shap- 
low, when  reiterating  the  wish  for  self  and  friend  to  witness 
a  display  of  his  cunning  with  the  fists,  had  spoken  the  name 
of  Jarniman.  An  unusual  name  :  yet  more  than  one  Jarni- 
man  mi^ht  well  exist.  And  unlikely  that  a  friend  of  the 
pork- butcher  would  be  the  person  whom  Mr.  Kadnor  first 
prohibited  and  then  desired  to  receive.  It  hardly  mat- 
tered : — considering  that  the  Dutch  Navy  did  really,  in- 
credible as  it  seems  now,  come  sailing  a  good  way  up  the 
River  Thames,  into  the  very  main  artery  of  Old  England. 
And  what  thought  the  Tower  of  it'  Skepsey  looked  at  the 
Tower  in  sympathy,  wondering  whether  the  Tower  had  seen 
those  impudent  Dutch :  a  nice  people  at  home,  he  had  heard. 
Mr.  Shaplow's  Jarniman  might  actually  be  Mr.  Radnor's 
he  inclined  to  think.  At  any  rate  he  was  now  sure  of  tht< 
name. 


(    89    ) 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

WHEREIN   WE   BEHOLD   THE   COUPLE   JUSTIFIED   OF   LOVE   HAVING 
SIGHT   OF   THEIR   SCOURGE. 

Fenellan,  in  a  musing  exclamation,  that  was  quite  spon- 
taneous, had  put  a  picture  on  the  departing  Skepsey,  as 
observed  from  an  end  of  the  Lakelands  upper  terrace-walk. 
"  Queer  little  water-wagtail  it  is  !  "  And  Lady  Grace  ff  alley 
and  Miss  Graves  and  Mrs.  Cormyn,  snugly  silken  dry  ones, 
were  so  taken  with  the  pretty  likeness  after  hearing  Victor  call 
the  tripping  dripping  creature  the  happiest  man  in  England, 
that  they  nursed  it  in  their  minds  for  a  Bewick  tailpiece  to 
the  chapter  of  a  pleasant  rural  day.  It  imbedded  the  day  in 
an  idea  that  it  had  been  rural. 

We  are  indebted  almost  for  construction  to  those  who  will 
define  us  briefly  :  we  are  but  scattered  leaves  to  the  general 
comprehension  of  us  until  such  a  work  of  binding  and  label- 
ling is  done.  And  should  the  definition  be  not  so  correct  as 
"brevity  pretends  to  make  it  at  one  stroke,  we  are  at  least 
rendered  portable;  thus  we  pass  into  the  conceptions  of  our 
fellows,  into  the  records,  down  to  posterity.  Anecdotes  of 
England's  happiest  man  were  related,  outlines  of  his  personal 
history  requested.  His  nomination  in  chief  among  the 
traditionally  very  merry  Islanders  was  hardly  borne  out  by 
the  tale  of  his  enchainment  with  a  drunken  yokefellow — 
unless  upon  the  Durance  version  of  the  felicity  of  his  country- 
men ;  still,  the  water-wagtail  carried  it,  Skepsey  trotted  into 
memories.  Heroes  conducted  up  Fame's  temple-steps  by 
ceremonious  historians,  who  are  studious,  when  the  platform 
is  reached,  of  the  art  of  setting  them  beneath  the  flambeau 
of  a  final  image,  before  thrusting  tfoem  inside  to  be  rivetted 
on  their  pedestals,  have  an  excellent  chance  of  doing  the  same, 
let  but  the  provident  narrators  direct  that  image  to  paint  the 
thing  a  moth-like  humanity  desires,  in  the  thing  it  shrinks 
from.  Miss  Priscilla  Graves  now  fastened  her  meditations 
upon  Skepsey ;  and  it  was  important  to  him. 

Tobacco  withdrewthe  haunting  shadow  of  the  Rev.  Septimus 
Barmby  from  Nesta.  She  strolled  beside  Louise  de  Seilles, 
to  breathe  swtet-sweet  in  the  dear  friend's  ear  and  tell  her 


90  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

she  loved  her.  The  presence  of  the  German  had.  without 
rousing  animosity,  damped  the  young  Frenchwoman,  even  to 
a  revulsion  when  her  feelings  had  been  touched  by  hearing 
praise  of  her  France,  and  wounded  by  the  subjects  of  the 
praise.  She  bore  the  national  scar,  which  is  barely  skin- 
clothing  of  a  gash  that  will  not  heal  since  her  country  was 
overthrown  and  dismembered.  Colney  Durance  could  excuse 
the  unreasonableness  in  her,  for  it  had  a  dignity,  and  she 
controlled  it,  and  quietly  suffered,  trusting  to  the  steady, 
tireless,  concentrated  aim  of  her  France.  In  the  Gallic  mind 
of  our  time,  France  appears  as  a  prematurely  buried  Glory, 
that  heaves  the  mound  oppressing  breath  and  cannot  cease ; 
and  calls  hourly,  at  times  keenly,  to  be  remembered,  rescued 
from  the  pain  and  the  mould-spots  of  that  foul  sepulture. 
Mademoiselle  and  Colney  were  friends,  partly  divided  by  her 
speaking  once  of  revanche ;  whereupon  he  assumed  the  chair 
of  the  Moralist,  with  its  right  to  lecture,  and  went  over  to 
the  enemy;  his  talk  savoured  of  a  German.  Our  holding  of 
the  balance,  taking  two  sides,  is  incomprehensible  to  a  people 
quivering  with  the  double  wound  to  body  and  soul.  She 
was  of  Breton  blood.  Cymric  enough  was  in  Nesta  to  catch 
any  thrill  from  her  and  join  to  her  mood,  if  it  hung  out  a 
colour  sad  or  gay,  and  was  noble,  as  any  mood  of  this  dear 
Louise  would  surely  bo. 

Nataly  was  not  so  sympathetic.  Only  the  Welsh  and  pure 
Irish  are  quick  at  the  feelings  of  the  Celtic  French.  Nataly 
came  of  a  Yorkshire  stock  ;  she  had  the  bravery,  humaneness 
and  generous  temper  of  our  civilized  North,  and  a  taste  for 
mademoiselle's  fine  breeding,  with  a  distaste  for  the  singular 
air  of  supnriority  in  composure  which  it  was  granted  to 
mademoiselle  to  wear  with  an  unassailable  reserve  when  the 
roughness  of  the  commercial  boor  was  obtrusive  She  said 
of  her  to  Colney,  as  they  watched  the  couple  strolling  by  the 
lake  below:  "Nesta  brings  her  out  of  her  frosts.  1  suppose 
it's  the  presence  of  Dr.  Schlesien.  I  have  known  it  the  same 
after  an  evening  of  Wagner's  music." 

"  Richard  Wagner  Germanized  ridicule  of  the  French  when 
they  were  down,"  said  Colney.  "  She  comes  of  a  blood  that 
never  forgives." 

"  'Never  forgives'  is  horrible  to  think  of!  I  fancied  you 
Liked  your  '  Kelts,'  as  you  call  them." 

Colney  seized  on  a  topic  that  shelved  a  less  agreeable  one 


SIGHT   OF   THEIR    SCOURGE.  91 

that  he  saw  coming.  "  You  English,  won't  descend  to  under- 
stand what  does  not  resemble  you.  The  French  are  in  a 
state  of  feverish  patriotism.  You  refuse  to  treat  them  for  a 
case  of  fever.  They  are  lopped  of  a  limb  :  you  tell  them  to 
be  at  rest !  " 

"  You  know  I  am  fond  of  them." 

"  And  the  Kelts,  as  they  are  called,  can't  and  won't 
forgive  injuries  ;  look  at  Ireland,  look  at  Wales,  and  the 
Keltic  Scot.  Have  you  heard  them  talk  ?  It  happened  in 
the  year  1400  :  it's  alive  to  them  as  if  it  were  yesterday. 
,01d  History  is  as  dead  to  the  English  as  their  first  father. 
They  beg  for  the  privilege  of  pulling  the  forelock  to  the 
bearers  of  the  titles  of  the  men  who  took  their  lands  from 
them  and  turn  them  to  the  uses  of  cattle.  The  Saxon 
English  had,  no  doubt,  a  heavier  thrashing  than  any  people 
allowed  to  subsist  ever  received:  you  see  it  to  this  day;  the 
crick  of  the  neck  at  the  name  of  a  lord  is  now  concealed  and 
denied,  but  they  have  it  and  betray  the  effects;  and  it's 
patent  in  their  journals,  all  over  their  literature.  Where  it's 
not  seen,  another  blood's  at  work.  The  Kelt  won't  accept 
that  form  of  slavery.  Let  him  be  servile,  supple,  cunning, 
treacherous,  and  to  appearance  time-serving,  he  will  always 
remember  his  day  of  manly  independence  and  who  robbed 
him  :  he  is  the  poetic  animal  of  the  races  of  modern  men." 

"  You  give  him  Pagan  colours." 

"  Natural  colours.  He  does  not  offer  the  other  cheek  or 
turn  bis  back  to  be  kicked  after  a  knock  to  the  ground. 
Instead  of  asking  him  to  forgive,  which  he  cannot  do,  you 
must  teach  him  to  admire.  A  mercantile  community  guided 
by  Political  Economy  from  the  ledger  to  the  banquet  presided 
over  by  its  Dagon-Capital,  finds  that  difficult.  However, 
there's  the  secret  of  him ;  that  I  respect  in  hirn.  His 
admiration  of  an  enemy  or  oppressor  doing  great  deeds,  wins 
him  entirely.  He  is  an  active  spirit,  not  your  negative 
passive  letter-of-Scripture  Insensible.  And  his  faults,  short 
of  ferocity,  are  amusing;." 

44  But  the  fits  of  ferocity  !  " 

"  They  are  inconscient,  real  fits.     They  come   of  a   hot 
nerve.     He   is   manageable,  sober  too    when    his    mind    is 
charged.     As  to  the  French  people,  they  are  the  most  mixed   j 
of  any  European  nation  ;  so  they  are  packed  with  contrasts 
they  are  full  of  sentiment,  they  are   sharply  logical;  free- 

V*  OF   THI  '  r 

UNIVERSITY 


92  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

thinkers,  devotees;  affectionate,  ferocious;  frivolous,  tena- 
cious; the  passion  of  the  season  operating  like  sun  or  moon 
on  these  qualities ;  and  they  can  reach  to  ideality  out  of 
sensualism.  Below  your  level,  they're  above  it : — a  paradox 
is  at  home  with  them  !  " 

"  My  friend,  you  speak  seriously — an  unusual  compliment," 
Nataly  said,  and  ungratefully  continued  :  "  You  know  what 
is  occupying  me.  I  want  your  opinion.  I  guess  it.  I  want 
to  hear — a  mean  thirst  perhaps,  and  you  would  pay  me  any 
number  of  compliments  to  avoid  the  subject;  but  let  me 
hear : — this  house  !  " 

Colney.  shrugged  in  resignation.  "Victor  works  himself 
out,"  he  replied. 

"  We  are  to  go  through  it  all  again  ?" 

'•  If  you  have  not  the  force  to  contain  him." 

"  How  contain  him?" 

Up  went  Colney 's  shoulders. 

"  You  may  see  it  all  before  you,"  he  said,  ■•  straight  as  the 
Seine  chau^see  from  the  hill  of  La  Roche  Guyon." 

He  looked  for  her  recollection  of  the  scene. 

M  Ah,  the  happy  ramble  that  year  ! "  she  cried.  "  And 
my  Nesta  just  seven.  We  had  been  six  months  at  Craye. 
Every^dayrjf  our  life  together  looks  happy  to  me,  looking 
back,  though  I  know  that  every  day  had  the  same  troubles. 
I  don't  think  I'm  deficient  in  courage ;  I  think  1  could  meet. 
.  .  .  But  the  false  position  so  cruelly  weakens  me.  I  am  no 
woman's  equal  when  I  have  to  receive  or  visit.  It  seems 
easier  to  meet  the  worst  in  life — danger,  death,  anything. 
Pardon  me  for  talking  so.  Perhaps  we  need  not  have  left 
Craye  or  Creckholt  .  .  .  ?"  she  hinted  an  interrogation. 
**  Though  I  am  not  sorry ;  it  is  not  good  to  be  where  one 
tastes  poison.  Hie  it  may  be  as  deadly,  worse.  Dear 
friend,  I  am  so  glad  you  remember  La  Roche  Guyon.  He 
was  popular  with  the  dear  Jfrench  people." 

"In  spite  of  his  accent." 

"  It  is  not  so  bad  !  " 

"And  that  you'll  defend  !  " 

"  Consider :  these  neighbours  we  come  among ;  they  may 
have  heard.  ..." 

"  Act  on  the  assumption." 

"  You  forget  the  principal  character.  Victor  promises ;  he 
may  have  learnt  a  lesson  at  Creckholt.      But  look  at  this 


BIGHT   OF   THEItt    SCOURGE.  93 

house  "he  Las  built.  How  can  I — any  woman — contain  him  ! 
He  must  have  society." 

"Paraitrt!" 

"  He  must  be  in  the  front.     He  has  talked  of  Parliament." 

Colney's  liver  rook  the  thrust  ot  a  skewer  through  it.  He 
spoke  as  in  meditative  encomium:  "His  entry  into  Parlia- 
ment would  promote  himself  and  family  to  a  station  of 
eminence  naked  over  the  Clock  Tower  of  the  Housa." 

Shy  moaned.  "  At  the  vilest,  I  cannot  regret  my  coi  duct 
— bear  what  I  may.  I  can  bear  real  pain :  what  kills  me  is, 
the  suspicion.  And  I  feel  it  like  a  guilty  wretch!  And 
I  do  not  feel  the  guilt !  I  should  do  the  same  .again,  on 
reflection.  I  do  believe  it  saved  him.  I  do;  oh!  I  do,  I  do. 
I  cannot  expect  my  family  to  see  with  my  e37es.  You  know 
them — my  brother  and  sisters  think  I  have  disgraced  them ; 
they  put  no  value  on  my  saving  him.  It  sounds  childish; 
it  is  true.     He  had  fallen  into  a  terrible  black  mood." 

"  He  had  an  hour  of  gloom." 

"  An  hour  !  " 

"But  an  hour,  with  him  !     It  means  a  good  deal." 

"  Ah,  friend,  I  take  your  words.  He  sinks  terribly  when 
he  sinks  at  all. — Spare  us  a  little  while. — We  have  to  judge 
of  what  is  good  in  the  circumstances : — I  hear  jour  reply  ! 
But  the  principal  for  me  to  study  is  Victor.  You  have 
accused  me  of  being  the  voice  of  the  enamoured  woman.  I 
follow  him,  I  know;  I  try  to  advise;  I  find  it  is  wisdom  to 
submit.  My  people  regard  my  behaviour  as  a  wickedness 
or  a  madness.  I  did  save  him.  I  joined  my  fate  with  his. 
I  am  his  mate,  to  help,  and  I  cannot  oppose  him,  to  distract 
him.  I  do  my  utmost  for  privacy.  He  must  entertain. 
Believe  me,  I  feel  for  them — sisters  and  brother.  And  now 
that  my  sisters  are  married.  .  .  .  My  brother  has  a  man's 
hardness." 

"Colonel  Dreighton  did  not  speak  harshly,  at  our  last 
meeting  " 

"He  spoke  of  me?" 

"  He  spoke  in  the  tone  of  a  brother." 

"Victor  promises— I  won't  repeat  it.  Yes,  I  see  the 
house!  There  appears  to  be  a  prospect,  a  hope — 1  cannot 
allude  to  it.  Craye  and  Creckholt  may  have  been  some 
lesson  to  him.— Selw}*  n  spoke  of  me  kindly?  Ah,  yes,  it  is 
♦he  way  with  iny  people  to  pretend  that  Victor  has  been  the 


94  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

ruin  of  me,  that  they  may  come  round  to  family  sentiments. 
In  the  same  way,  his  relatives,  the  Duvidney  ladies,  have 
their  picture  of  the  woman  misleading  him.  Imagine  me 
tne  naughty  adventuress!" — Kataly  falsified  the  thought 
insurgent  at  her  heart,  in  adding :  "  I  do  not  say  I  am 
blameless."  It  was  a  concession  to  the  circumambient  enemy, 
of  whom  even  a  good  friend  was  a  part,  and  not  better  than 
a  respectful  emissary.  The  dearest  of  her  friends  belonged 
to  that  hostile  world.  Only  Victor,  no  other,  stood  with  her 
against  the  world.  Her  child,  yes;  the  love  of  her  child 
she  had;  but  the  child's  destiny  was  an  alien  phantom, 
looking  at  her  with  harder  eyes  than  she  had  vision  of  in 
her  family.  She  did  not  say  she  was  blameless,  did  not 
affect  the  thought.  She  would  have  wished  to  say,  for  small 
encouragement  she  would  have  said,  that  her  case  could  be 
pleaded. 

Colney's  features  were  not  inviting,  though  the  expression 
was  not  repellent.  She  sighed  deeply;  and  to  count  on 
something  helpful  by  mentioning  it,  reverted  to  the  '  pros- 
pect '  which  there  appeared  to  be.  "  Victor  speaks  of  the 
certainty  of  his  release." 

His  release  !  Her  language  pricked  a  satirist's  gall-bladder. 
Colney  refrained  from  speaking  to  wound,  and  enjoyed  a 
silence  that  did  it. 

"Do  you  see  any  possibility? — you  knew  her,"  she  said 
coldly. 

"  Counting  the  number  of  times  he  has  been  expecting  the 
release,  he  is  bound  to  believe  it  near  at  hand." 

"You  don't?"  she  asked :  her  bosom  was  up  in  a  crisis  of 
expectation  for  the  answer :  and  on  a  pause  of  hall-a-minute, 
she  could  have  uttered  the  answer  herself. 

He  perceived  the  insane  eagerness  through  her  mask,  and 
despised,  it,  pitying  the  woman.  "And  you  don't,"  he  said. 
"  You  catch  at  delusions,  to  excuse  the  steps  you  consent 
to  take.  Or  you  want  me  to  wear  the  blinkers,  the  better  to 
hoodwink  your  own  eyes.  You  see  it  as  well  as  I: — if  you 
enter  that  house,  you  have  to  go  through  the  same  as  at 
Creckholt : — and  he'll  be  the  first  to  take  fright." 

"No." 

"  He  finds  you  in  tears :  he  is  immensely  devoted ;  he 
flings  up  all  to  protect  *  his  Nataly.'  " 

"  No ;  you  are  unjust  to  him.     He  would  fling  up  all : —  " 


SIGHT   OF   THEIR    SCOURGE.  95 

"  But  his  Nataly  prefers  to  be  dragged  through  fire  ?  As 
you  please !  " 

She  bowed  to  her  chastisement.  One  motive  in  her  con- 
sultation with  him  came  of  the  knowledge  of  his  capacity  to 
inflict  it  and  his  honesty  in  the  act,  and.  a  thirst  she  had  to 
hear  the  truth  loud-tongued  from  him;  together  with  a 
feeling  that  he  was  excessive  and  satiric,  not  to  be  read  by 
the  letter  of  his  words :  and  in  consequence,  she  could  bear 
the  lash  from  him,  and  tell  her  soul  that  he  overdid  it,  and 
have  an  unjustly-treated  self  to  cherish. — But  in  very  truth 
she  was  a  woman  who  loved  to  hear  the  truth;  she  was 
formed  to  love  the  truth  her  position  reduced  her  to  violate; 
she  esteemed  the  hearing  it  as  medical  to  her;  she  selected 
for  counsellor  him  who  would  apply  it :  so  far  she  went  on 
the  straight  way ;  and  the  desire  for  a  sustaining  deception 
from  the  mouth  of  a  trustworthy  man  set  her  hanging  on 
his  utterances  with  an  anxious  hope  of  the  reverse  of  what 
was  to  come  and  what  she  herself  apprehended,  such  as 
checked  her  pulses  and  iced  her  feet  and  ringers.  The  reason 
being,  not  that  she  was  craven  or  absurd  or  paradoxical,  but 
that,  living  at  an  intenser  strain  upon  her  nature  than  she 
or  any  around  her  knew,  her  strength  snapped,  she  broke 
down  by  chance  there  where  Colney  was  rendered  spiteful 
in  beholding  the  display  of  her  inconsequent  if  nut  puling  sex. 

She  might  have  sought  his  counsel  on  another  subject,  if 
a  paralyzing  chill  of  her  frame  in  the  foreview  of  it  had 
allowed  her  to  speak :  she  felt  grave  alarms  in  one  direction, 
where  Nesta  stood  in  the  eye  of  her  father;  besides  an 
unformed  dread  that  the  simplicity  in  generosity  of  Victor's 
nature  was  doomed  to  show  signs  of  dross  ultimately,  under 
the  necessity  he  imposed  upon  himself  to  run  out  his  fore- 
casts, and  scheme,  and  defensively  compel  the  world  to  serro 
his  ends,  for  the  protection  of  those  dear  to  him. 

At  night  he  was  particularly  urgent  with  her  for  the 
harmonious  duet  in  praise  of  Lakelands;  and  plied  her  with 
questions  all  round  and  about  it,  to  bring  out  the  dulcet 
accord.  He  dwelt  on  his  choice  of  costly  marbles,  his  fire- 
place and  mantelpiece  designs,  the  great  hall,  and  suggestions 
fur  imposing  and  beautiful  furniture;  concordantly  enough, 
for  the  large,  the  lofty  and  rih  of  colour  won  her  enthusiasm ; 
but  overwhelmingly  to  any  mood  of  resistance ;  and  stiangely 
in  a  man  who  hud  of  late  been  adopting,  as  if  his  own,  a 


96  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

modem  tone,  or  the  social  and  literary  hints  of  it,  relating 
to  the  right  uses  of  wealth,  and  the  duty  as  well  as  the 
delight  of  living  simply. 

"  Fredi  was  pleased." 

"  Yes,  she  was,  dear." 

"She  is  our  girl,  my  love.  *I  could  live  and  die  here!' 
Live,  she  may.     There's  room  enough." 

Nataly  saw  the  door  of  a  covert  communication  pointed  at 
in  that  remark.  She  gathered  herself  for  an  effort  to  do 
battle. 

"  She's  quite  a  child,  Victor." 

"  The  time  begins  to  run.  We  have  to  look  forward  now : 
— I  declare,  it's  I  who  seem  the  provident  mother  for  Fredi !  " 

"Let  our  girl  wait;  don't  hurry  her  mind  to.  .  .  .  She  is 
happy  with  her  father  and  mother.  She  is  in  the  happiest 
time  of  her  life,  before  those  feelings  distract." 

"If  we  see  good  fortune  for  her,  we  can't  let  it  pa^s  her." 

A  pang  of  the  resolution  now  to  debate  the  case  with 
Victor,  which  would  be  of  necessity  to  do  the  avoided  thing 
and  roll  up  the  forbidden  curtain  opening  on  their  whole 
history  past  and  prospective,  was  met  in  Nataly 's  bosom  by 
the  more  bitter  immediate  confession  that  she  was  not  his 
match.  To  speak  would  be  to  succumb ;  and  shamefully 
after  the  effort;  and  hopelessly  after  being  overborne  by 
him.  There  was  not  the  anticipation  of  a  set  contest  to 
animate  the  woman's  naturally  valiant  heart;  he  was  too 
strong :  and  his  vividness  in  urgency  overcame  her  in 
advance,  fascinated  her  sensibility  through  recollection ;  he 
fanned  an  inclination,  lighted  it  to  make  it  a  passion,  a 
frenzied  resolve — she  remembered  how  and  when.  She  had 
quivering  cause  to  remember  the  fateful  day  of  her  step,  ir 
a  letter  received  that  morning  from  a  married  sister,  coi. 
taining  no  word  of  endearment  or  proposal  for  a  meeting. 
An  unregretted  day,  if  Victor  would  think  of  the  dues  to 
others;  that  is,  would  take  station  with  the  world  to  see  bi» 
reflected  position,  instead  of  seeing  it  through  their  self- 
justifying  knowledge  of  the  honourable  truth  of  their  love, 
and  pressing  to  claim  and  snatch  at  whatsoever  the  world 
bestows  on  its  orderly  subjects. 

They  had  done  evil  to  no  one  as  yet.  Nataly  thought 
that ;  notwithstanding  the  outcry  of  the  ancient  and  withered 
woman  who  bore  Victor  Radnor's  name :  for  whom,  in  con- 


tKGHT   OF   THEIR    SCOURGE.  97 

sequence  of  the  rod  the  woman  had  used,  this  tenderest  of 
hearts  could  summon  no  emotion.  If  she  had  it,  the  thing 
was  not  to 'be  hauled  up  to  consciousness.  Her  feeling  was, 
that  she  forgave  the  wrinkled  Malignity  :  pity  and  contrition 
dissolving  in  the  effort  to  produce  the  placable  forgiveness. 
She  was  frigid  because  she  knew  rightly  of  herself,  that  she 
in  the  place  of  power  would  never  have  struck  so  meanly. 
But  the  mainspring  of  the  feeling  in  an  almost  remorseless 
bosom  drew  from  certain  chance  expressions  of  retrospective 
physical  distaste  on  Victor's  part;— hard  to  keep  from  a 
short  utterance  between  the  nuptial  two,  of  whom  the 
unshamed  exuberant  male  has  found  the  sweet  reverse  in 
his  mate,  a  haven  of  heavenliness,  to  delight  in: — these 
conjoined  with  a  woman's  unspoken  pleading  ideas  of  her 
own,  on  her  own  behalf,  had  armed  her  jealously  in  vindica- 
tion of  Nature. 

Now,  as  long  as  they  did  no  palpable  wrong  about  them, 
Nataly  could  argue  her  case  in  her  conscience — deep  down 
and  out  of  hearing,  where  women  under  scourge  of  the  laws 
they  have  not  helped  decree  may  and  do  deliver  their  minds. 
She  stood  in  that  subterranean  recess  for' Nature  against  the 
Institutions  of  Man  :  a  woman  little  adapted  for  the  post  of 
rebel;  but  to  this,  by  the  ageucy  of  circumstances,  it  had 
come;  she  who  was  designed  by  nature  to  be  an  ornament 
of  those  Institutions  opposed  them  :  and  when  thinking  of 
the  rights  and  the  conduct  of  the  decrepit  Legitimate — 
virulent  in  a  heathen  vindictiveness  declaring  itself  holy — 
she  had  Nature's  logic,  Nature's  voice,  for  self-defence.  It 
was  eloquent  with  her,  to  the  deafening  of  other  voices  in 
herself,  even  to  the  convincing  of  herself,  when  she  was 
wrought  by  the  fires  within  to  feel  elementally.  The  other 
voices  within  her  issued  of  the  acknowledged  dues  to  her 
family  and  to  the  world — the  civilization  protecting  women  : 
sentences  thereanent  in  modern  books  and  journals.  But  the 
remembrance  of  moods  of  fiery  exaltation,  when  the  Nature 
she  called  by  name  of  Love  raised  the  chorus  within  to  stop 
all  outer  buzzing,  was,  in  a  perpetual  struggle  with  a  whirl- 
pool, a  constant  support  while  she  and  Victor  were  one  at 
heart.  The  sense  of  her  standing  alone  made  her  sway  ;  and 
a  thought  of  differences  with  him  caused  frightful  appre- 
hensions of  the  abyss. 

Luxuriously  she  applied  tq  his  public  life  for  witness  thai 

H 


98  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

he  had  governed  wisely  as  well  as  affectionately  »o  Tong;  and 
he  might  therefore,  with  the  chorussing  of  the  world  of 
public  men,  expect  a  womnn  blindfold  to  follow  his  lead. 
But  no;  we  may  be  rebels  against  our  time  and  its  Laws: 
if  we  are  really  for  Nature,  we  are  not  lawless.  Nataly's 
untutored  scruples,  which  came  side  by  side  with  her  ability 
to  plead  for  her  acts,  restrained  her  from  complicity  in  the 
ensnaring  of  a  young  man  of  social  rank  to  espouse  the 
daughter  of  a  couple  socially  insurgent — stained,  to  common 
thinking,  should  denunciation  come.  The  Nature  upholding 
her  fled  at  a  vision  of  a  stranger  entangled.  Pitiable  to 
reflect,  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  adventurer-lords  of  prey 
who  hunt  and  run  down  shadowed  heiresses  and  are  con- 
gratulated on  their  luck  in  a  tolerating  country  !  How  was 
the  young  man  to  be  warned?  How,  under  the  happiest  of 
suppositions,  propitiate  his  family  !  And  such  a  family,  if 
consenting  with  knowledge,  would  consent  only  for  the  love 
of  money.  It  was  angling  with  as  vile  a  bait  as  the  rascal 
lord's.  Humiliation  hung  on  the  scheme  ;  it  struck  to  scorch- 
ing in  the  contemplation  of  it.  And  it  darkened  her  reading 
of  Victor's  character. 

She  did  not  ask  for  the  specification  of  a  "good  fortune 
that  might  pass;"  wishing  to  save  him  from  his  wonted 
twists  of  elusiveness,  and  herself  with,  him  from  the  dread 
discussion  it  involved  upon  one  point. 

"  The  day  was  pleasant  to  all,  except  perhaps  poor  made- 
moiselle," she  said. 

"Peridon  should  have  come?" 

"  Present  or  absent,  his  chances  are  not  brilliant,  I  fear." 

"  And  Pempton  and  Priscy !  " 

"  They  are  growing  cooler !  " 

"With  their  grotesque  objections  to  one  another's  habits 
at  table !  " 

"  Can  we  ever  hope  to  get  them  over  it  ?  " 

"When  Priscy  drinks  Port  and  Pempton  munches  beef, 
Oolney  says.1* 

'*  I  should  say,  when  they  feel  warmly  enough  to  think 
little  of  their  differences." 

"  Fire  smoothes  the  creases,  res  ;  and  fire  is  what  they're 
both  wanting  in.  Though  Priscy  has  Concert-pathos  in  her 
voice  : — couldn't  act  a  bit!  And  Pempton's  'cello  tones  now 
and  then  have  gone  through   me — simply  from  his  fiddle- 


MEMBERS    OP    A    HOUSEHOLD  99 

bow,  I  believe.  Don't  talk  to  me  of  feeling  in  a  couple, 
within  reach  of  one  another  and  sniffing  objections. — Good, 
then,  for  a  successful  day  to-day  so  far?" 

He  neared  her,  wooing  her;  and  she  assented,  with  a 
franker  smile  than  she  had  worn  through  the  day. 

The  common  burden  on  their  hearts — the  simple  discussion 
to  come  of  the  task  of  communicating  dire  actualities  to  their 
innocent  Nesta — was  laid  aside. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TREATS   OP   THE   DUMBNESS   POSSIBLE    WITH    MEMBERS   OF   A   HOUSE- 
HOLD  HAVING  ONE   HEART. 

Two  that  live  together  in  union  are  supposed  to  be  intimate 
on  every  leaf.  Particularly  when  they  love  one  another  and 
the  cause  they  have  at  heart  is  common  to  them  in  equal 
measure,  the  uses  of  a  cordial  familiarity  forbid  reserves  upon 
important  matters  between  them,  as  we  think ;  not  thinking 
of  an  imposed  secretiveness,  beneath  the  false  external  of 
submissiveness,  which  comes  of  an  experience  of  repeated 
inefficiency  to  maintain  a  case  in  opposition,  on  the  part  of 
the  loquently  weaker  of  the  pair.  In  Constitutional  King- 
doms a  powerful  Government  needs  not  to  be  tyrannical  to 
lean  oppressively;  it  is  more  serviceable  to  party  than  agree- 
able to  country ;  and  where  the  alliance  of  men  and  women 
binds  a  loving  couple,  of  whom  one  is  a  torrent  of  persuasion, 
their  differings  are  likely  to  make  the  other  resemble  a  log 
of  the  torrent.  It  is  borne  along;  it  dreams  of  a  distant 
corner  of  the  way  for  a  determined  stand ;  it  consents  to  its 
whirling  in  anticipation  of  an  uudated  hour  when  it  will  no 
longer  be  neutral. 

There  may  be,  moreover,  while  each  has  the  key  of  the 
fellow  breast,  a  mutually  sensitive  nerve  to  protest  against 
intrusion  of  light  or  sound.  The  cloud  over  the  name  of 
their  girl  could  now  strike  Nataly  and  Victor  dumb  in  their 
taking  of  counsel.  She  divined  that  his  hint  had  encouraged 
him  to  bring  the  crisis  nearer,  and  he  that  her  comprehension 
had  become  tremblingly  awake.  They  shrank,  each  of  them, 
the  more  from  an  end  drawing  closely  into  view.     All  sub- 


100  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

jects  glooming  off  or  darkening  tip  to  it  were  slmnned  by 
them  verbally,  and  if  tbey  found  themselves  entering  beneath 
that  shadow,  conversation  passed  to  an  involuntary  gesture, 
more  explicit  with  him,  significant  of  the  prohibited,  though 
not  acknowledging  it. 

All  the  stronger  was  it  Victor's  purpose,  leaping  in  his 
fashion  to  the  cover  of  action  as  an  escape  from  perplexity, 
to  burn  and  scheme  for  the  wedding  of  their  girl — the  safe 
wedding  of  that  dearest,  to  have  her  protected,  secure,  with 
the  world  warm  about  her.  And  he  well  knew  why  his 
Nataly  had  her  look  of  a  closed  vault  (threatening,  if  opened, 
to  thunder  upon  Life)  when  he  dropped  his  further  hints. 
He  chose  to  call  it  feminine  inconsistency,  in  a  woman  who 
walked  abroad  with  a  basket  of  marriage  ties  for  the  market 
on  her  arm.  He  knew  that  she  would  soon  have  to  speak 
the  dark  words  to  their  girl ;  and  the  idea  of  any  doing  of  it, 
caught  at  his  throat.  Reasonably  she  dreaded  the  mother's 
task;  pardonably  indeed.  But  it  is  for  the  mother  to  do, 
with  a  girl.  He  deputed  it  lightly  to  the  mother  because  he 
could  see  himself  stating  the  facts  to  a  son.  "  And,  my  dear 
boy,  you  will  from  this  day  draw  your  five  thousand  a  year, 
and  we  double  it  on  the  day  of  your  marriage,  living  at 
Lakelands  or  where  you  will." 

His  desire  for  his  girl's  protection  by  the  name  of  one  of 
our  great  Families,  urged  him  to  bind  Nataly  to  the  fact, 
with  the  argument,  that  it  was  preferable  tor  the  girl  to  hear 
their  story  during  her  green  early  youth,  while  she  reposed 
her  beautiful  blind  faith  in  the  discretion  of  her  parents, 
and  as  an  immediate  step  to  the  placing  of  her  hand  in  a 
husband's.  He  feared  that  her  mother  required  schooling  to 
tell  the  story  vindicatingly  and  proudly,  in  a  manner  to  dis- 
tinguish instead  of  degrading  or  temporarily  seeming  to 
accept  degradation. 

The  world  would  weigh  on  her  confession  of  the  weight 
of  the  world  on  her  child ;  she  would  want  inciting  and 
strengthening,  if  one  judged  of  her  capacity  to  meet  the  trial 
by  her  recent  bearing  ;  and  how  was  he  to  do  it !  He  could 
not  imagine  himself  encountering  the  startled,  tremulous, 
nascent  intelligence  in  those  pure  brown  dark-lashed  eyes  of 
Nesta ;  he  pitied  the  poor  mother.  Fancifully  directing  her 
to  say  this  and  that  to  the  girl,  his  tongue  ran  till  it  was  cut 
from  his  heart  and  left  to  wag  dead  colourless  words. 


MEMBERS   OF   A   HOUSEHOLD.  101 

The  prospect  of  a  similar  business  of  exposition,  certainly 
devolving  upon  the  father  in  treaty  with,  the  fortunate 
youth,  gripped  at  his  vitals  a  minute,  so  intense  was  his 
pride  in  appearing  woundless  and  scarless,  a  shining  surface, 
like  pure  health's,  in  the  sight  of  men.  Nevertheless  he 
skimmed  the  story,  much  as  a  lecturer  strikes  his  wand  on 
the  prominent  places  of  a  map,  that  is  to  show  us  how  he 
arrived  at  the  principal  point,  which  we  are  all  agreed  to 
find  chiefly  interesting.  This  with  Victor  was  the  naming  of 
Nesta's  bridal  endowment.  He  rushed  to  it.  "  My  girl 
will  have  ten  thousand  a  year  settled  on  her  the  day  of  her 
marringe."     Choice  of  living  at  Lakelands  was  offered. 

It  helped  him  over  the  unpleasant  part  of  that  interview. 
At  the  same  time,  it  moved  him  to  a  curious  contempt  of  the 
youth.  He  had  to  conjure-up  an  image  of  the  young  man  in 
person,  to  correct  the  sentiment :  and  it  remained  as  a  kind 
of  bruise  only  half  cured. 

Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby  was  not  one  of  the  youths  whose 
presence  would  rectify  such  an  abstract  estimate  of  the 
genus  pursuer.  He  now  came  frequently  of  an  evening,  to 
practise  a  duet  for  flutes  with  Victor;  —  a  Mercadante, 
honeyed  and  flowing;  too  honeyed  to  suit  a  style  that,  as 
Fenellan  characterized  it  to  Nataly,  went  through  the  music 
somewhat  like  an  inquisitive  tourist  in  a  foreign  town, 
conscientious  to  get  to  the  end  of  the  work  of  pleasure ; 
until  the  notes  had  become  familiar,  when  it  rather  resem- 
bled a  constable's  walk  along  the  midnight  streets  into 
collision  with  a  garlanded  roysterer;  and  the  man  of  order 
and  the  man  of  passion,  true  to  the  measure  though  they 
were,  seeming  to  dissent,  almost  to  wrangle,  in  their  different 
•ways  of  winding  out  the  melody,  on  to  the  last  movement; 
which  was  plainly  a  question  between  home  to  the  strayed 
lever's  quarters  or  oft"  to  the  lock-up.  Victor  was  altogether 
the  younger  of  the  two.  But  his  vehement  accompaniment 
was  a  tutorship;  Mr.  Sowerby  improved;  it  was  admitted 
by  N  I'Sta  and  mademoiselle  that  he  gained  a  show  of  feeling  : 
he  hai  learnt  that  feeling  was  wanted.  Passion,  he  had  not 
a  notion  of:  otherwise  he  would  not  be  delaying; — the 
interview,  dramatized  by  the  father  of  the  young  bud  of 
womanhood,  would  be  taking  place,  and  the  entry  into 
Lakelands  calculable,  for  Nataly 's  comfort,  as  under  the 
regis  of  the  Cantor  earldom.     Gossip  flies  to  a  wider  circle 


102  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

round  the  members  of  a  great  titled  family,  is  inaudible ;  or 
no  longer  the  diptherian  whisper  the  commonalty  nea?  of 
the  commonalty :  and  so  we  see  the  social  uses  of  our  aris- 
tocracy survive.  We  do  not  want  the  shield  of  any  family ; 
it  is  the  situation  that  wants  it ;  Nataly  ought  to  be  awake 
to  the  fact.  One  blow  and  we  have  silenced  our  enemy: 
Nesta's  wedding-day  has  relieved  her  parents. 

Victor's  thoughts  upon  the  instrument  for  striking  that 
blow,  led  him  to  suppose  Mr.  Sowerby  might  be  meditating 
on  the  extent  of  the  young  lady's  fortune.  He  talked 
randomly  of  money,  in  a  way  to  shatter  Nataly's  conception 
of  him.  He  talked  of  City  affairs  at  table,  as  it  had  been 
his  practise  to  shun  the  doing;  and  hit  the  resounding  note 
on  mines,  which  have  risen  in  the  market  like  the  crest  of  a 
serpent,  casting  a  certain  spell  upon  the  mercantile  under- 
standing. *kFredi's  diamonds  from  her  own  mine,  or  what 
once  was — and  she  still  reserves  a  share,"  were  to  be  shown 
to  Mr.  Sowerby. 

Nataly  respected  the  young  fellow  for  not  displaying 
avidity  at  the  flourish  of  the  bait,  however  it  might  be 
affecting  him;  and  she  fancied  that  he  did  laboriously,  in 
his  way  earnestly,  study  her  girl,  to  sound  for  harmony 
between  them,  previous  to  a  wooing.  She  was  a  closer 
reader  of  social  character  than  Victor;  from  retraining  to 
run  on  the  broad  lines  which  are  but  faintly  illustrative  of 
the  individual  one  in  being  common  to  all — unless  we  have 
hit  by  chance  on  an  example  of  the  downright  in  roguery  or 
folly  or  simple  goodness.  Mr.  Sowerbv's  bearing  to  Nesta 
was  hardly  warmed  by  the  glitter  of  diamonds.  His  next 
visit  showed  him  livelier  in  courtliness,  brighter,  fresher; 
but  that  was  always  his  way  at  the  commencement  of  every 
visit,  as  if  his  reflections  on  the  foregone  had  come  to  a 
satisfactory  conclusion ;  and  the  labours  of  the  new  study  of 
the  maiden  ensued  again  in  due  course  to  deaden  him. 

Gentleman  he  was.  In  the  recognition  of  his  quality  as  a 
man  of  principle  and  breeding,  Nataly  was  condemned  by 
thoughts  of  Nesta's  future  to  question  whether  word  or  act 
of  hers  should,  if  inclination  on  both  sides  existed,  stand 
between  her  girl  and  a  true  gentleman.  She  counselled 
herself,  as  if  the  counsel  were  in  requisition,  to  be  passive; 
and  so  doing,  she  more  acutely  than  Victor— save  in  his 
chance   flashes  —  discerned   the   twist   of  her   very   nature 


MEMBERS   OF   A   HOUSEHOLD.  103 

caused  by  their  false  position.  And  her  panacea  for  ills,  the 
lost  little  cottage,  would  not  have  averted  it:  she  would 
there  have'had  the  same  coveting  desire  to  name  a  man  of 
breeding,  honour,  station,  for  Nesta's  husband.  Perhaps  in 
the  cottage,  choosing  at  leisure,  her  consent  to  see  thw 
brilliant  young  creature  tied  to  the  best  of  dull  men  would 
have  been  unready,  without  the  girl  to  push  it.  J?  or  the 
Hi  n.  Dudley  was  lamentably  her  pupil  in  liveliness;  he 
took  the  second  part,  as  it  is  painful  for  a  woman  with  the 
old-fashioned  ideas  upon  the  leading  of  the  sexes  to  behold  ; 
resembling  in  his  look  the  deaf,  who  constantly  require  to 
have  an  observation  repeated  ;  resembling  the  most  intelli- 
gent of  animals,  which  we  do  not  name,  and  we  reprove 
ourselves  for  seeing  a  likeness.  Yet  the  likeness  or  apparent 
likeness  would  suggest  that  we  have  not  so  much  to  fear 
upon  the  day  of  the  explanation  to  him.  Some  gain  is  there. 
Shameful  thought!  Xataly  hastened  her  mind  to  gather 
many  instances  or  indications  testifying  to  the  sterling 
substance  in  young  Mr.  Sower  by,  such  as  a  mother  would 
pray  for  her  son-in-law  to  possess.  She  discovered  herself 
feeling  as  the  burdened  mother,  not  providently  for  her  girl, 
in  the  choice  of  a  mate.  The  perception  was  clear,  and  not 
the  less  did  she  continue  working  at  the  embroidery  of  Mr. 
Sowerby  on  the  basis  of  his  excellent  moral  foundations, 
all  the  while  hoping,  praying,  that  he  might  not  be  lured 
on  to  the  proposal  for  Nesta.  But  her  subservience  to 
the  power  of  the  persuasive  will  in  Victor — which  was 
like  the  rush  of  a  conflagration — compelled  her  to  think 
realizingly  of  any  scheme  he  allowed  her  darkly  to  read. 
Opposition  to  him,  was  comparable  to  the  stand  of  blocks  of 
timber  before  flame.  Colney  Durance  had  done  her  the 
mischief  we  take  from  the  pessimist  when  we  are  over- 
weighted :  in  darkening  the  vision  of  external  aid  from  man 
or  circumstance  to  one  who  felt  herself  mastered.  Victor 
could  make  her  treacherous  to  her  wishes,  in  revolt  against 
them,  though  the  heart  protested.  His  first  conquest  of  her 
was  in  her  blood,  to  weaken  a  spirit  of  resistance.  For  the 
precedent  of  submission  is  a  charm  upon  the  faint-hearted 
through  love :  it  unwinds,  unwills  them.  Natal  v  resolved 
fixedly,  that  there  must  be  a  day  for  speaking ;  and  she  had 
her  moral  sustainment  in  the  resolve;  she  had  also  a  tor- 
menting consciousness  of  material  support  in  the  thought, 


104  ONE    OP-  OUR    CONQUERORS. 

tliat  the  day  was  not  present,  was  possibly  distant,  might 
never  arrive.  Would  Victor's  release  come  sooner?  And 
that  was  a  prospect  bearing  resemblance  to  noi  us  of  the  cure 
of  a  malady  through  a  sharp  operation. 

These  were  matters  going  on  behind  the  cnriain ;  as 
wholly  vital  to  her,  and  with  him  at  times  almost  as  domi- 
nant, as  the  spiritual  in  memory,  when  flesh  lias  left  but  its 
shining  track  in  dust  of  a  soul  outwritten  ;  and  all  their  talk 
related  to  the  purchase  of  furniture,  the  expeditions  to 
Lakelands,  music,,  public  affairs,  the  pardonable  foibles  of 
friends  created  to  amuse  their  fellows,  operatic  heroes  and 
heroines,  exhibitions  of  pictures,  the  sorrows  of  Crowned 
Heads,  so  serviceable  ever  to  mankind  as  an  admonition  to 
the  ambitions,  a  salve  to  the  envious  I-r-in  fine,  whatsoever 
can  entertain  or  affect  the  most  social  of  couples,  domesti- 
cally without  a  care  to  appearance.  And  so  far  they  par- 
tially—dramatically— deceived  themselves  by  imposing  on 
the  world  while  thev  talked  and  duetted ;  for  the  purchase 
of  furniture  from  a  flowing  purse  is  a  cheerful  occupation; 
also  a  City  issuing  out  of  hospital,  like  this  poor  City  of 
London,  inspires  good  citizens  to  healthy  activity.  But  the 
silence  upon  what  they  were  most  bent  on,  had  the  sinister 
effect  upon  Victor,  of  obscuring  his  mental  hold  of  the 
beloved  woman,  drifting  her  away  from  hiin.  In  communi- 
cating Fenellans  news  through  the  lawyer  Carling  of  Mrs. 
Burman's  intentions,  he  was  aware  that  there  was  an 
obstacle  to  his  being  huggingly  genial,  even  candidly  genial 
with  her,  until  he  could  deal  out  further  news,  corroborative 
and  consecutive,  to  show  the  action  of  things  as  progressive. 
Fenellan  had  sunk  into  his  usual  apathy: — and  might  plead 
the  impossibility  of  his  moving  faster  than  the  woman  pro- 
fessing to  transform  herself  into  beneficence  out  of  malignity; 
— one  could  hear  him  saying  the  words!  Victor  had  not 
seen  him  since  last  Concert  evening,  and  he  deemed  it  as 
well  to  hear  the  words  Fenellan's  mouth  had  to  say.  He 
called  at  an  early  hour  of  the  Westward  tidal  flow  at  the 
Insurance  Office  looking  over  the  stormy  bquare  of  the  first 
of  Seamen. 


(     105     ) 
CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   LATEST    OF    MRS.  BURMA.N. 

After  cursory  remarks  about  the  business  of  the  Office  and 
his  friend's  contributions  to  periodical  literature,  in  which 
he  was  interested  for  as  long  as  he  had  assurance  that  the 
safe  income  depending  upon  official  duties  was  not  en- 
dangered by  them,  Victor  kicked  his  heels  to  and  fro. 
Fenellan  waited  for  him  to  lead. 

"Have  you  seen  that  man,  her  lawyer,  again?" 

"  I  have  dined  with  Mr.  Carling : — capital  claret." 

Emptiness  was  in  the  reply. 

Victor  curbed  himself  and  said :  "  By  the  way,  you're  not 
likely  to  have  dealings  with  Blathenoy.  The  fellow  has  a 
screw  to  the  back  of  a  shifty  eye ;  I  see  it  at  work  to  fix  the 
look  for  business.  I  shall  sit  on  the  Board  of  my  Bank. 
One  hears  things.  He  lives  in  style  at  Wr%nsham.  By  the 
way,  Fredi  has  little  Mab  Mountney  from  Creckholt  staying 
with  her.  You  said  of  little  Mabsy — '  Here  she  comes  into 
the  room  all  pink  and  white,  like  a  daisy.'  She's  the  daisy 
still;  reminds  us  of  our  girl  at  that  age. — So,  then,  we  come 
to  another  dead  block ! " 

"Well,  no;  it's  a  chemist's  shop,  if  that  helps  us  on," 
said  Fenellan,  settling  to  a  new  posture  in  his  chair.  "  She's 
there  of  an  afternoon  for  hours." 

"You  mean  it's  she?" 

"The  lady.  I'll  tell  you.  I  have  it  from  Carling,  worthy 
man  ;  and  lawyers  can  be  brought  to  untruss  a  point  over 
a  cup  of  claret.  He's  a  bit  of  a  *  Mackenzie  Man,'  as  old 
aunts  of  mine  used  to  say  at  home — a  Man  of  Feeling. 
Thinks  he  knows  the  world,  from  having  sifted  and  sorted 
a  lot  of  our  dustbins  ;  as  the  modern  Realists  imagine  it's 
an  exposition  of  positive  human  nature  when  they've  pulled 
down  our  noses  to  the  worst  parts — if  there's  a  worse  where 
all  are  useful :  but  the  Realism  of  the  dogs  is  to  have  us  by 
the  nose: — excite  it  and  befoul  it,  and  you're  fearfully 
credible!  You  don't  read  that  olfactory  literature.  How- 
ever, friend  Carling  is  a  conciliatory  carle.  Three  or  four 
days  \>f  the  week  the  lady,  he  s*ays,  drives  to  her  chemist's, 


106  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

and  there  she  sits  in  the  shop ;  round  the  corner,  as  you 
enter;  and  sees  all  Charing  in  the  shop  looking-glass  at  the 
back;  herself  a  stranger  spectacle,  poor  lady,  if  Carling's 
picture  of  her  is  not  overdone;  with  her  fashionable  no- 
bonnet  striding  the  contribution  chignon  on  the  crown,  and 
a  huge  square  green  shade  over  her  forehead.  Sits  hours 
long,  and  cocks  her  ears  at  orders  of  applicants  for  drugs 
across  the  counter,  and  sometimes  catches  wind  of  a  pre- 
scription, ami  consults  her  chemist,  and  thinks  she'll  try  it 
herself.  It's  a  basket  of  medicine  bottles  driven  to  Regent's 
Park  pretty  well  every  day." 

"  Ha  !  Regent's  Park  !  "  exclaimed  Victor,  and  shook  at 
recollections  of  the  district  and  the  number  of  the  house, 
dismal  to  him.  London  buried  the  woman  deep  until  a 
mention  of  her  sent  her  flaring  over  London.  "  A  chemist's 
shop  !     She  sits  there  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Burman.     We  pass  by  the  shop." 

"She  had  always  a  turn  for  drugs.- — Not  far  from  here, 
did  you  say  ?     And  every  day  !  under  a  green  shade  ?  " 

"Dear  fellow,  tdon't  be  suggesting  ballads  ;  we'll  go  now," 
said  Fenellan.  "Ic's  true  it's  like  sitting  on  the  banks  of 
the  Stygian  waters." 

He  spied  at  an  obsequious  watch,  that  told  him  it  was 
time  to  quit  the  office. 

"You've  done  nothing?"  Victor  asked  in  a  tone  of  no 
expectation. 

"  Only  to  hear  that  her  latest  medical  man  is  Themison." 

"  Where  did  you  hear  ?  " 

"Across  the  counter  of  Boyle  and  Luckwort,  the  lady's 
chemists.  I  called  the  day  before  yesterday,  after  you  were 
here  at  our  last  Board  Meeting." 

"  The  Themison  ?  " 

"The  great  Dr.  Themison:  who  kills  you  kindlier  than 
most,  and  is  much  in  request,  for  it." 

"  There's  one  of  your  echoes  of  Colney ! "  Victor  cried. 
"  One  gets  dead  sick  of  that  worn-out  old  ji being  at  doctors. 
They  don't  kill,  you  know  very  well.  It's  not  to  their 
interest  to  kill.  They  may  take  the  relish  out  of  life ;  and 
upon  my  word,  I  believe  that  helps  to  keep  the  patient 
living ! " 

Fenellan  sent  an  eye  of  discreet  comic  penetration  travelling 
through  his  friend. 


THE   LATEST   OP   MRS.  BURMAN.  107 

€C  The  City's  mending ;  it's  not  the  weary  widow  woman 
of  the  day  when  we  capsized  the  diurnal  with  your  royal 
Old  Veuve/'  he  said,  as  they  trod  the  pavement.  "  Funny 
people,  the  English!  They  give  you  all  the  primeing 
possible  for  amusement  and  jollity,  and  devil  a  sentry-box  for 
the  exercise  of  it ;  and  if  you  shake  a  leg  publicly,  partner 
or  not,  you're  marched  off  to  penitence.  I  complain,  that 
they  have  no  philosophical  appreciation  of  human  nature/' 

"We  pass  the  shop?"  Victor  interrupted  him. 

*'  You're  in  view  of  it  in  a  minute.  And  what  a  square, 
for  recreative  dancing!  And  what  a  people,  to  be  turning 
it  into  a  place  of  political  agitation  !  And  what  a  country, 
where  from  morning  to  night  it's  an  endless  wrangle  about 
the  first  conditions  of  existence !  Old  Colney  seems  right 
now  and  then : — they're  the  offspring  of  pirates,  and  they've 
got  the  manners  and  tastes  of  their  progenitors,  and  the 
trick  of  quarrelling  everlastingly  over  the  booty.  I'd  have 
band-music  here  for  a  couple  of  hours,  three  days  of  the 
week  at  the  least ;  and  down  in  the  East ;  and  that  forsaken 
North  quarter  of  London  ;  and  the  Baptist  South  too.  But 
just  as  those  omnibus-wheels  are  the  miserable  music  of  this 
London  of  ours,  it's  only  too  sadly  true  that  the  people  are 
in  the  first  rumble  of  the  notion  of  the  proper  way  to  spend 
their  lives.  Now  you  see  the  shop:  Boyle  and  Luck  wort : 
there." 

Victor  looked.  He  threw  his  coat  open,  and  pulled  the 
waistcoat,  and  swelled  it,  ahemming.  "That  shop?"  said 
he.  And  presently :  "  Fenellan,  I'm  not  superstitious,  I 
think.  Now  listen ,  I  declare  to  you,  on  the  day  of  our 
drinking  Old  Veuve  together  last — you  remember  it, — I 
walked  home  up  this  way  across  the  square,  and  I  was  about 
to  step  into  that  identical  shop,  for  some  household  prescrip- 
tion in  my  pocket,  having  forgotten  Nataly's  favourite  City 
chemists  Fenbird  and  Jay,  when — I'm  stating  a  fact — I 
distinctly — I'm  sure  of  the  shop— felt  myself  plucked  back 
by  the  elbow ;  pulled  back  :  the  kind  of  pull  when  you  have 
to  put  a  foot  backward  to  keep  your  equilibrium." 

So  does  memory  inspired  by  the  sensations  contribute  an 
additional  item  for  the  colouring  of  history. 

He  touched  the  elbow,  showed  a  flitting  face  of  crazed 
amazement  in  amusement,  and  shrugged  and  half-laughed, 
dismissing  the  incident,  as  being  perhaps,  if  his  hearer  chose 


108  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

to  have  it  so,  a  gem  of  the  rubbish  tumbled  into  the  dust- 
cart out  of  a  rather  exceptional  householder's  experience. 

Fenellan  smiled  indulgently.  "Queer  things  happen.  I 
recollect  reading  in  my  green  youth  of  a  clergyman,  who 
mounted  a  pulpit  of  the  port  where  he  was  landed  after  his 
almost  solitary  rescue  from  a  burning  ship  at  midnight  in 
mid-sea,  to  inform  his  congregation,  that  he  had  overnight 
of  the  catastrophe  a  personal  Warning  right  in  his  ear  from 
a  Voice,  when  at  his  bed  or  bunk-side,  about  to  perform  the 
beautiful  ceremony  of  undressing :  and  the  Kev.  gentleman 
was  to  lie  down  in  his  full  unitorm,  not  so  much  as  to  relieve 
himself  of  his  boots,  the  Voice  insisted  twice;  and  he  obej^ed 
it,  despite  the  discomfort  to  his  poor  feet ;  and  he  jumped 
up  in  his  boots  to  the  cry  of  Fire,  and  he  got  them  providen- 
tially over  the  scuffling  deck  straight  at  the  first  rush  into 
the  boat  awaiting  them,  and  had  them  safe  on  and  polished 
the  day  he  preached  the  sermon  of  gratitude  for  the  special 
deliverance.  There  was  a  Warning !  and  it  might  well  be 
called,  as  he  called  it,  from  within.  We're  cared  for,  never 
doubt.  Aide-toi.  Be  ready  dressed  to  help  yourself  in  a 
calamity,  or  you'll  not  stand  in  boots  at  your  next  Sermon, 
contrasting  with  the  burnt.     That  sounds  like  the  moral." 

"  She  could  have  seen  me,"  Victor  threw  out  an  irritable 
suggestion.  The  idea  of  the  recent  propinquity  set  hatred 
in  motion. 

"  Scarcely  likely.  I'm  told  she  sits  looking  on  her  lap, 
under  the  beetling  shade,  until  she  hears  an  order  for 
tinctures  or  powders,  or  a  mixture  that  strikes  her  fancy. 
It's  possible  to  do  more  suicidal  things  than  sit  the  after- 
noons in  a  chemist's  shop  and  see  poor  creatures  get  their 
different  passports  to  Orcus." 

Victor  stepped  mutely  beneath  the  windows  of  the  bellied 
glass-urns  of  chemical  wash.  The  woman  might  be  inside 
there  now !  She  might  have  seen  his  figure  in  the  shop- 
mirror  !  And  she  there !  The  wonder  of  it  all  seemed  to  be, 
that  his  private  history  was  not  walking  the  streets.  The 
thinness  of  the  partition  concealing  it,  hardly  guaranteed  a 
day's  immunity: — because  this  woman  would  live  in  London, 
in  order  to  have  her  choice  of  a  central  chemist's  shop, 
where  she  could  feed  a  ghastly  imagination  on  the  various 
recipes  .  .  .  and  while  it  would  have  been  so  much  healthier 
for  her  to  be  living  in  a  recess  of  the  country  I 


THE   LATEST   OF   MRS.    BURMAN.  109 

He  muttered  :  "  Diseases — drugs  !  " 

Those  were  the  corresponding  two  strokes  of  the  pendulum 
which  kept  the  woman  going. 

"  And  deadly  spite."  That  was  the  emanation  of  the 
monotonous  horrible  conflict,  for  which,  and  by  which,  the 
woman  lived. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  shop,  he  could  not  hut  think 
of  her  through  the  feelings  of  a  man  scorched  by  a  furnace. 

A  little  further  on,  he  said  :  "  Poor  soul  I  "  He  confessed 
to  himself,  that  latterly  he  had,  he  knew  not  why,  been 
impatient  with  her,  rancorous  in  thought,  as  never  before. 
He  had  hitherto  aimed  at  a  picturesque  tolerance  of  her 
vindictiveness ;  under  suffering,  both  at  Craye  and  Creek- 
holt ;  and  he  had  been  really  forgiving.  He  accused  her  of 
dragging  him  down  to  humanity's  lowest. 

But  if  she  did  that,  it  argued  the  possession  of  a  power  of 
a  sort. 

Her  station  in  the  chemist's  shop  he  passed  almost  daily, 
appeared  to  him  as  a  sudden  and  a  terrific  rush  to  the  front ; 
though  it  was  only  a  short  drive  from  the  house  in  Regent's 
Park ;  but  having  shaken-off  that  house,  he  had  pushed  it 
back  into  mists,  obliterated  it.  The  woman  certainly  had 
a  power. 

He  shot  away  to  the  power  he  knew  of  in  himself;  his 
capacity  for  winning  men  in  bodies,  the  host  of  them,  when 
it  came  to  an  eifort  of  his  energies:  men  and,  individually, 
women.  Individually,  the  women  were  to  be  counted  on  as 
well;  warm  supporters. 

It  was  the  admission  of  a  doubt  that  he  might  expect 
to  enrol  them  collectively.  Eyeing  the  men,  he  felt  his 
command  of  them.  Glancing  at  congregated  women,  he 
had  a  chill.  The  Wives  and  Spinsters  in  ghostly  judicial 
assembly :  that  is,  the  phantom  of  the  offended  collective 
woman  :  that  is,  the  regnant  Queen  Idea  issuing  from  our 
concourse  of  civilized  life  to  govern  Society,  and  pronounce 
on  the  orderly,  the  tolerable,  the  legal,  and  banish  ihe 
rebellious  :  these  maintained  an  aspect  of  the  stand  against 
him. 

Did  Nataly  read  the  case :  namely,  that  the  ciowned 
collective  woman  is  not  to  be  subdued?  And  what  are  we 
to  say  of  the  indefinite  but  forcible  Authority,  when  we  see 
it  upholding  Mrs.  Burman  to  crush  a  woman  like  JSTataly  ! 


110  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Victor's  novel  exercises  in  reflection  were  "bringing  him 
"by  hard  degrees  to  conceive  it  to  be  the  Impalpable  which 
has  prevailing  weight.  Not  many  of  our  conquerors  have 
scored  their  victories  on  the  road  of  that  index  :  nor  has 
duration  been  granted  them  to  behold  the  minute  measure 
of  value  left  even  tangible  after  the  dust  of  the  conquest 
subsides.  The  passing  by  a  shop  where  a  broken  old  woman 
might  be  supposed  to  sit  beneath  her  green  forehead-shade 
— Venetian-blind  of  a  henbane-visage  ! — had  precipitated 
him  into  his  first  real  grasp  of  the  abstract  verity  :  and  it 
opens  on  to  new  realms,  which  are  a  new  world  to  the 
practical  mind.  But  he  made  no  advance.  He  stopped  in  a 
fever  of  sensibility,  to  contemplate  the  powerful  formless 
vapour  rolling  from  a  source  that  was  nothing  other  than 
yonder  weak  lonely  woman. 

In  other  words,  the  human  nature  of  the  man  was  dragged 
to  the  school  of  its  truancy  by  circumstances,  for  him  to 
learn  the  commonest  of  sums  done  on  a  slate,  in  regard  to 
payment  of  debts  and  the  unrelaxing  grip  of  the  creditor 
on  the  defaulter.  Debtors  are  always  paying :  like  those 
who  are  guilty  of  the  easiest  thing  in  life,  the  violation  of 
Truth,  they  have  made  themselves  bondmen  to  pay,  if  not 
in  substance,  then  in  soul;  and  the  nipping  of  the  soul 
goes  on  for  as  long  as  the  concrete  burden  is  undischarged. 
You  know  the  Liar;  you  must  have  seen  him  diminishing, 
until  he  has  become  a  face  without  features,  withdrawn  to 
s  humanity's  preliminary  sketch  (some  half-dozen  frayed 
/threads  of  woeful  outline  on  our  original  tapestty-web); 
and  he  who  did  the  easiest  of  things,  he  must  from  such 
time  sweat  in  being  the  prodigy  of  inventive  nimbleness, 
ttj.  to  the  day  when  he  propitiates  Truth  by  telling  it  again. 
T^ere  is  a  repentance  that  does  reconstitute  !  It  may  help 
to  the  traceing  to  springs  of  a  fable  whereby  men  have  been 
guided  thus  far  out  of  the  wood. 

Victor  would  have  said  truly  that  he  loved  Truth ;  that 
he  paid  every  debt  with  a  scrupulous  exactitude  :  money,  of 
course  :  and  prompt  apologies  for  a  short  brush  of  his  temper. 
Nay,  he  had  such  a  conscience  for  the  smallest  eruptions  of 
a  transient  irritability,  that  the  wish  to  say  a  friendly  mend- 
ing word  to  the  Punctilio  donkey  of  London  Bridge,  softened 
his  retrospective  view  of  the  fall  there,  more  than  once. 
Although  this  man  was  a  presentation  to  mankind  of  the 


\ 


THE    LATEST    OF    MRS.   BURMAN.  Ill 

force  in  Nature  which  drives  to  ur>res+ing  speed,  which  is 
the  vitality  of  the  heart  seen  at  its  i  eating  after  a  plucking 
of  it  from  the  body,  he  knew  himself  for  the  reverse  of 
lawless ;  he  inclined  altogether  to  good  citizenship.  iSo 
social  a  man  could  not  otherwise  incline.  But  when  it  came 
to  the  examination  of  accounts  between  Mrs.  Burman  and 
himself,  spasms  of  physical  revulsion,  loathings,  his  exces- 
sive human  nature,  put  her  out  of  Court.  To  men,  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  speak  the  torments  of  those  days  of 
the  monstrous  alliance.  The  heavens  were  cognizant.  He 
pleaded  his  case  in  their  accustomed  hearing  : — a  youngster 
tempted  by  wealth,  attracted,  besought,  snared,  revolted,  &c. 
And  Mrs.  Burman,  when  roused  to  jealousy,  had  shown  it 
by  teazing  him  for  a  confession  of  his  admiration  of  splendid 
points  in  the  beautiful  Natal y,  the  priceless  fair  woman 
living  under  their  roof,  a  contrast  of  very  life  with  the 
corpse  and  shroud ;  and  she  seen  by  him  daily,  singing 
with  him,  her  breath  about  him,  her  voice  incessantly  upon 
every  chord  of  his  being  ! 

He  pleaded  successfully.  But  the  silence  following  the 
verdict  was  heavy  ;  the  silence  contained  an  unheard  thunder. 
It  was  the  sound,  as  when  out  of  Court  the  public  is  dis- 
satisfied with  a  verdict.  Are  we  expected  to  commit  a  social 
outrage  in  exposing  our  whole  case  to  the  public? — Imagine 
it  for  a  moment  as  done.  Men  are  ours  at  a  word — or  at 
least  a  word  of  invitation.  Women  we  woo ;  fluent  smooth, 
versions  of  our  tortures,  mixed  with  permissible  courtship, 
win  the  individual  woman.  And  that  unreasoning  collective 
woman,  icy,  deadly,  condemns  the  poor  racked  wretch  who 
so  much  as  remembers  them  !  She  is  the  enemy  of  Nature. 
— Tell  us  how?  She  is  the  slave  of  existing  conventions. — 
And  from  what  cause  ?  She  is  the  artificial  production  of 
a  state  that  exalts  her  so  long  as  she  sacrifices  daily  and 
hourly  to  the  artificial. 

Therefore  she  sides  with  Mrs.  Burman — the  foe  of  Nature  : 
who,  with  her  arts  and  gold  lures,  has  now  possession  of  the 
Law  (the  brass  idol  worshipped  by  the  collective)  to  drive 
Nature  into  desolation. 

He  placed  himself  to  the  right  of  Mrs.  Burman,  for  the 
world  to  behold  the  couple  :  and  he  lent  the  world  a  sigh,  of 
disgust. 

What  he  could  not  do,  as  in  other  matters  he  did,  was  to 


112  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

rise  above  the  situation,  in  a  splendid  survey  and  rapid  view 
of  the  means  of  reversing  it.  He  was  too  social  to  be  a 
captain  of  the  socially  insurgent ;  imagination  expired. 

But  having  a  courageous  Nataly  to  second  him!— how 
then  ?  It  was  the  succour  needed.  Then  he  would  have 
been  ready  to  teach  the  world  that  Nature — honest  Nature — 
is  more  to  be  prized  than  Convention  :  a  new  iEra  might 
begin. 

The  thought  was  tonic  for  an  instant  and  illuminated  him 
*pringingly.  It  sank,  excused  for  the  flaccidity  by  Nataly's 
want  of  common  adventurous  daring,  bhe  had  not  taken 
to  Lakelands  ;  she  was  purchasing  furniture  from  a. flowing 
purse  with  a  heavy  heart — unfeminine,  one  might  say ;  she 
preferred  to  live  obscurely;  she  did  not,  one  had  to  think — 
but  it  was  unjust :  and  yet  the  accusation,  that  she  did  not 
cheerfully  make  a  strain  and  spurt  on  behalf  of  her  child, 
pressed  to  be  repeated. 

These  short  glimpses  at  reflection  in  Victor  were  like  the 
verberant  twang  of  a  musical  instrument  that  has  had  a 
smart  blow,  and  wails  away  independent  of  the  player's 
cunning  hand.  He  would  have  said,  that  he  was  more  Ids 
natural  self  when  the  cunning  hand  played  on  him,  to  make 
him  praise  and  uplift  his  beloved  :  mightily  would  it  have 
astonished  him  to  contemplate  with  assured  perception  in 
his  own  person  the  Nature  he  invoked.  But  men  invoking 
Nature,  do  not  find  in  her  the  Holy  Mother  she  in  such  case 
becomes  to  her  daughters,  whom  she  so  persecutes.  Men 
call  on  her  for  their  defence,  as  a  favourable  witness  :  she 
is  a  note  of  their  rhetoric.  They  are  not  bettered  by  her 
sustainment;  they  have  "not,  as  women  may  have,  her 
ensemic  aid  at  a  trying  hour.  It  is  not  an  effort  at  epigram 
to  say,  that  whom  she  scourges  most  she  most  supports. 

An  Opera-placard  drew  his  next  remark  to  Fenellan. 

"  How  Wagner  seems  to  have  stricken  the  Italians  !  Well, 
now,  the  Germans  have  their  emperor  to  head  their  armies, 
and  I  say  that  the  German  emperor  has  done  less  for  their 
lasting  fame  and  influence  than  Wagner  has  done.  He  has 
affected  the  French  too ;  I  trace  him  in  Gounod's  Borneo 
et  Juliette — and  we  don't  gain  by  it;  we  have  a  poor 
remuneration  for  the  melody  gone;  think  of  the  little 
shepherd's  pipeing  in  Mireille  ;  and  there's  another  in  Sapho 
—  delicious.     I  held  out  against  Wagner  as  long  as  I  could. 


THE    LATEST    OF    MRS.    BURMAN.  113 

The  Italians  don't  much  more  than  Wagnerize  in  exchange 
for  the  loss  of  melody.  They  would  be  wiser  in  going  back 
to  Pergolese,  Campa^nole.  The  Mefistofile  was  good — of 
the  school  of  the  foreign  muster.  Aida  and  Otello,  no.  I 
confess  to  a  weakness  tor  the  old  barley-sugar  of  Bellini 
or  a  Donizetti-Serenade.  Aren't  you  seduced  by  cadences  ? 
Never  mind  Wagner's  tap  of  his  pedagogue's  baton — a 
cadence  catches  me  still.  Early  taste  tor  barley-sugar, 
perhaps  !  There's  a  march  in  Verdi's  Attila  and  I  Lombardi, 
I  declare  I'm  in  military  step  when  I  hear  them,  as  in  the 
old  days,  after  leaving  the  Opera.  Fredi  tikes  little  Mab 
Mountney  to  her  first  Opera  to-night.  Enough  to  make  us 
old  ones  envious  !  You  remember  your  first  Opera,  Fenellan? 
fronnambula,  with  me.  I  tell  you,  it  would  task  the  highest 
poetry — say,  require,  if  you  like — showing  all  that's  noblest, 
splendidest,  in  a  young  man,  to  describe  its  effect  on  me.  I 
was  dreaming  of  my  box  at  the  Opera  for  a  year  after  The 
Huguenots  to-night.  Not  the  best  suited  for  little  Mabsy: 
but  she'll  catch  at  the  Bataplan.  Capital  Opera;  we  used 
to  think  it  the  best,  before  we  had  Tannhaiiser  and  Lohengrin 
and  the  Meistersinger." 

Victor  hinted  notes  of  the  Conspiration  Scene  closing  the 
Third  Act  of  the  Huguenots.  That  sombre  Chorus  brought 
Mrs.  Burman  before  him.  He  drummed  the  Rataplan,  which 
sent  her  flying.  The  return  of  a  lively  disposition  for  dinner 
and  music  completed  his  emancipation  from  the  yoke  of  the 
baleful  creature  sitting  half  her  days  in  the  chemist's  shop; 
save  that  a  thought  of  drugs  broughr  the  smell,  and  the 
smell  the  picture ;  she  threatened  to  be  an  apparition  at 
any  amount  pervading  him  through  his  nostrils.  He  spoke 
to  Fenellan  of  hunger  for  dinner,  a  need  for  it ;  singular  in 
one  whose  appetite  ran  to  the  stroke  of  the  hour  abreast 
with  Armandine's  kitchen-clock.  Fenellan  proposed  a  glass 
of  sherry  and  bitters  at  his  Club  over  the  wayT.  He  had 
forgotten  a  shower  of  black-balls  (attributable  to  the  con- 
jurations of  old  Ate)  on  a  certain  past  day.  •••itnout  w>  rd 
of  refusal,  Victor  entered  a  wine-merchant's  office,  where  he 
was  unknown,  and  stating  his  wish  for  bitters  and  dry 
sherry,  presently  received  the  glass,  drank,  nodded  to  the 
administering  clerk,  named  the  person  whom  he  had  obliged 
and  refreshed,  and  passed  out,  remarking  to  Fenellan : 
"Colney  on    Clubs  !  he's  right;  they're   the   mediasval  in 

J 


114  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS- 

modern  times,  our  Baron's  castles,  minus  the  Baron ;  dead 
against  public  life  and  social  duties.  Business  excuses  my 
City  Clubs ;  but  I  shall  take  my  name  off  my  Club  up 
West." 

"More  like  monasteries,  with  a  Committee  for  Abbot,  and 
"Whist  for  the  services,"  Fenellan  said.  **  Or  tabernacles  for 
the  Chosen,  and  Grangonsier  playing  Divinity  behind  the 
veil.     Well,  they're  social." 

"  Sectionally  social,  means  anything  but  social,  my  friend. 
However — and  the  monastery  had  a  bell  for  the  wanderer ! 
Say,  I'm  penniless  or  poundless,  up  and  down  this  walled 
desert  of  a  street,  I  feel,  I  must  feel,  these  palaces— if  we're 
Christian,  not  Jews:  not  that  the  Jews  are  uncharitable; 
they  set  an  example,  in  fact.  .  .  ." 

He  rambled,  amusingly  to  the  complacent  hearing  of 
Fenellan,  who  thought  of  his  pursuit  of  wealth  and  grand 
expenditure. 

.  Victor  talked  as  a  man  having  his  mind  at  leaps  beyond 
the  subject.  He  was  nearing  to  the  Idea  he  had  seized  and 
lost  on  London  Bridge. 

The  desire  for  some  good  news  wherewith  to  inspirit 
Nataly,  withdrew  him  from  his  ineffectual  chase.  He  had 
nought  to  deliver ;  on  the  contrary,  a  meditation  concerning 
her  comfort  pledged  him  to  concealment :  which  was  the  no 
step,  or  passive  state,  most  abhorrent  to  him. 

He  snatched  at  the  name  of  Themison. 

With  Dr.  Themison  fast  in  his  grasp,  there  was  a  report 
of  progress  to  be  made  to  Nataly ;  and  not  at  all  an  empty 
report. 

Themison,  then :  he  leaned  on  Themison.  The  woman's 
doctor  should  have  an  influence  approaching  to  authority 
with  her. 

Land-values  in  the  developing  Colonies,  formed  his  theme 
of  discourse  to  Fenellan  :  let  Banks  beware. 

Fenellan  saw  him  shudder  and  rub  the  back  of  his  head. 
"  Feel  the  wind  ?  "  he  said. 

.Victor  answered  him  with  that  humane  thrill  of  the  deep 
tones,  which  at  times  he  had:  "No:  don't  be  alarmed;  I 
feel  the  devil.  If  one  has  wealth  and  a  desperate  wish,  he 
will  speak.  All  he  does,  is  to  make  me  more  charitable  to 
those  who  give  way  to  him.     I  believe  in  a  devil." 

"Horns  and  tail?" 


DISCLOSES   A    STAGE    ON    THE    DRIVE    TO   PARIS.         115 

"  Bait  and  hook." 

"  I  haven't  wealth,  and  I  wish  only  for  dinner,"  Fenellan 
said. 

"  Yon  know  that  Armandine  is  never  two  minntes  late. 
By  the  way,  you  haven't  wealth — you  have  me." 

"And  I  thank  God  for  you!"  said  Fenellan,  acutely 
reminiscent  of  his  having  marked  the  spiritual  adviser  of 
Mrs.  Burnian,  the  Eev.  Groseman  Bulterinore,  us  a  man  who 
might  be  useful  to  his  friend. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

DISCLOSES   A   STAGE    ON   THE   DRIVE   TO   PARIS. 

A  fortnight  later,  an  extremely  disconcerting  circumstance 
occurred  :  Armandine  was  ten  minutes  behind  the  hour  with 
her  dinner.  But  the  surprise  and  stupefaction  expressed 
by  Victor,  after  glances  at  his  watch,  were  not  so  profound 
as  Fenellan's,  on  finding  himself  exchangeing  the  bow  with 
a  gentleman  bearing  the  name  of  Dr.  Themison.  His  friend's 
rapidity  in  pushing  the  combinations  he  conceived,  was 
known:  Fenellan's  wonder  was  not  so  much  that  Victor 
had  astonished  him  again,  as  that  he  should  be  called  upon 
again  to  wonder  at  his  astonishment.  He  did ;  and  he 
observed  the  doctor  and  Victor  and  Nataly :  aided  by  drop- 
ping remarks.  Before  the  evening  was  over,  he  gathered 
enough  of  the  facts,  and  had  to  speculate  only  on  the 
designs.  Dr.  Themison  had  received  a  vis.it  from  the 
husband  of  Mrs.  Victor  Radnor  concerning  her  state  of 
health.  At  an  interview  with  the  lady,  laughter  greeted 
him;  he  was  confused  by  her  denial  of  the  imputation  of 
a  single  ailment :  but  she,  to  recompose  him,  let  it  be  under- 
stood, that  she  was  anxious  about  her  husband's  condition, 
he  being  certainly  overworked ;  and  the  husband's  visit 
passed  for  a  device  on  the  part  of  the  wife.  She  admitted  a 
willingness  to  try  a  change  of  air,  if  it  was  deemed  good  for 
her  husband.  Change  of  air  was  prescribed  to  each  for 
both.  "Why  not  drive  to  Paris?"  the  doctor  said,  and 
Victor  was  taken  with  the  phrase. 


116  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

He  told  Fenellan  at  night  that  Mrs.  Burman,  he  had 
heard,  was  by  the  sea,  on  the  South  coast.  Which  of  her 
maladies  might  he  in  the  ascendant,  he  did  not  know.  He 
knew  little.  He  fancied  that  Dr.  Them i son  was  unsuspicious 
of  the  existence  of  a  relationship  between  him  and  Mrs. 
Burman :  and  Fenellan  opined,  that  there  had  been  no  com- 
munication unon  private  affairs.  What,  then,  was  the  object 
in  going  to  Dr.  Themison?  He  treated  her  body  merely; 
whereas  the  Kev.  Groseman  Buttermore  could  be  expected 
to  impose  upon  her  conduct.  Fenellan  appreciated  his  own 
discernment  of  the  superior  uses  to  which  a  spiritual  adviser 
may  be  put,  and  he  too  agreeably  flattered  himself  for  the 
corrective  reflection  to  ensue,  that  he  had  not  done  anything. 
It  disposed  him  to  think  a  happy  passivity  more  sagacious 
than  a  restless  activity.  We  should  let  Fortune  perform  her 
part  at  the  wheel  in  working  out  her  ends,  should  we  not? 
■ — for,  ten  to  one,  nine  times  out  of  ten  we  are  thwarting  her 
if  we  stretch  out  a  hand.  And  with  the  range  of  enjoy- 
ments possessed  by  Victor,  why  this  unceasing  restlessness? 
Why,  when  we  are  not  near  drowning,  catch  at  apparent 
straws,  which  may  be  instruments  having  sharp  edges  ? 
Themison,  as  Mrs.  Burman's  medical  man,  might  tell  the 
lady  tales  that  would  irritate  her  bag  of  venom.  Karely 
though  Fenellan  was  the  critic  On  his  friend,  the  shadow- 
cast  over  his  negligent  hedonism  by  Victor's  boiling  pres- 
sure, drove  him  into  the  seat  of  judgement.  As  a  consequence, 
he  was  rather  a  dull  table-guest  in  the  presence  of  Dr. 
Themison,  whom  their  host  had  pricked  to  anticipate  high 
entertainment  from  him.  He  did  nothing  to  bridge  the 
crevasse  and  warm  the  glacier  air  at  table  when  the  doctor, 
anecdotal  intentionally  to  draw  him  out,  related  a  decorous 
but  pungent  story  of  one  fair  member  of  a  sweet  new  sister- 
hood in  agitation  against  the  fixed  establishment  of  our 
chain-mail  marriage-tie.  An  anecdote  of  immediate  diversion 
was  wanted,  expected  :  and  Fenellan  sat  stupidly  speculating 
upon  whether  the  doctor  knew  of  a  cupboard  locked.  I^o 
that  Dr.  Themison  was  carried  on  by  Lady  Grace  H alley's 
humorous  enthusiasm  for  the  subject  to  dilate  and  discuss 
and  specify,  all  in  the  irony  of  a  judicial  leaning  to  the  side 
of  the  single-minded  social  adventurers,  under  an  assumed 
accord  with  his  audience;  concluding ;  "  JSo  there's  an  end 
oi  Divorce/' 


DISCLOSES   A   STAGE    ON   THE    DRIVE    TO   PARIS.         117 

"By  the  trick  of  multiplication,"  Fenellan,  now  reassured, 
waa  content  to  say.  And  that  did  not  extinguish  the 
cracker  of  'a  theme ;  handled  very  carefully,  as  a  thing  of 
fire,  it  need  scarce  be  remarked,  three  young  women  being 
present. 

Nataly  had  eyes  on  her  girl,  and  was  pleased  at  an  alert- 
ness shown  by  Mr.  Sowerbv  to  second  her  by  crossing 
the  dialogue.  As  regarded  her  personal  feelings,  she  was 
hardened,  so  long  as  the  curtains  were  about  her  to  keep  the 
world  from  bending  black  brows  of  inquisition  upon  one  of 
its  culprits.  But  her  anxiety  was  vigilant  to  guard  her  girl 
from  an  infusion  of  any  of  the  dread  facts  of  life  not  coming 
through  the  mother's  lips:  and  she  was  a  woman  having  the 
feminine  mind's  pudency  in  that  direction,  which  does  not 
consent  to  the  revealing  of  much.  Here  was  the  mother's 
dilemma :  her  girl — Victor's  girl,  as  she  had  to  think  in  this 
instance, — the  most  cloudless  of  the  young  women  of  earth, 
seemed,  and  might  be  figured  as  really,  at  the  falling  of  a 
crumb  off  the  table  of  knowledge,  taken  by  the  brain  to 
shoot  up  to  terrific  heights  of  surveyal ;  and  there  she 
rocked  ;  and  only  her  youthful  healthiness  brought  her  down 
to  grass  and  flowers.  She  had  once  or  twice  received  the 
electrical  stimulus,  to  feel  and  be  as  lightning,  from  a  seizure 
of  facts  in  infinitesimal  doses,  guesses  caught  off  maternal 
evasions  or  the  circuitous  explanation  of  matters  touching 
sex  in  here  and  there  a  newspaper,  harder  to  repress  com- 
pletely than  sewer-gas  in  great  cities :  and  her  mother  had 
seen,  with  an  apprehensive  pang  of  anguish,  how  wither- 
ingly  the  scared  young  intelligence  of  the  innocent  creature 
shocked  her  insensibility.  She  foresaw  the  need  to  such  a 
flarneful  soul,  as  bride,  wife,  woman  across  the  world,  of  the 
very  princeliest  of  men  in  gifts  of  strength,  for  her  sustainer 
and  guide.  And  the  provident  niotuer  knew  this  peerless 
gentleman :  but  he  had  his  wife. 

Delusions  and  the  pain  of  the  disillusioning  were  to  be 
feared  for  the  imaginative  Nesta  ;  though  not  so  much  as 
that  on  some  future  day  of  a  perchance  miserable  yokemating 
— a  subjection  or  an  entanglement — the  nobler  passions 
might  be  summoned  to  rise  for  freedom,  and  strike  a  line  to 
make  their  logically  estimable  sequence  from  a  source  not 
honourable  before  the  public.  Constantly  it  had  to  be 
thought,  that  the  girl  was  her  father's  child. 


118  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

At  present  she  had  no  passions  ;  and  her  bent  to  the 
happiness  she  could  so  richly  give,  had  drawn  her  sailing 
smoothly  over  the  harbour-bar  of  maidenhood  ;  where  many 
of  her  sisters  are  disconcerted  to  the  loss  of  simplicity.  If 
Nataly  with  her  sleepless  watchfulness  and  foreoasts  partook 
of  the  French  mother,  Nesta's  Arcadian  independence  likened 
her  somewhat  in  manner  to  the  Transatlantic  version  of  the 
English  girl.  Her  high  physical  animation  and  the  burden 
of  themes  it  plucked  for  delivery  carried  her  flowing  over 
impediments  of  virginal  self-consciousness,  to  set  her  at  her 
ease  in  the  talk  with  men;  she  had  not  gone  through  the 
various  Nursery  exercises  in  dissimulation ;  she  had  no 
appearance  of  praying  forgiveness  of  men  for,  the  original 
sin  of  being  woman ;  and  no  tricks  of  lips  or  lids,  or  traitor 
scarlet  on  the  cheeks,  or  assumptions  of  the  frigid  mask, 
or  indicated  reserve-cajoleries.  Neither  ignorantly  nor  ad- 
visedly did  she  play  on  these  or  other  bewitching  strings 
of  her  sex,  after  the  fashion  of  the  stamped  innocents,  who 
are  the  boast  of  Englishmen  and  matrons,  and  thrill  societies 
with  their  winsome  ingenuousness ;  and  who  sometimes 
when  unguarded  meet  an  artful  serenader,  that  is  a  cloaked 
bandit,  and  is  provoked  by  their  performances,  and  knows 
anthropologically  the  nature  behind  the  devious  show;  a 
sciential  rascal ;  as  little  to  be  excluded  from  our  modern 
circles  as  Eve's  own  old  deuce  from  Eden's  garden :  where- 
upon, opportunity  inviting,  both  the  fool  and  the  cunning, 
the  pure  donkey  princess  of  insular  eulogy,  and  the  sham 
one,  are  in  a  perilous  pass. 

Damsels  of  the  swiftness  of  mind  of  Nesta  cannot  be 
ignorant  utterly  amid  a  world  where  the  hints  are  hourly 
scattering  seed  of  the  inklings ;  when  vileness  is  not  at 
work  up  and  down  our  thoroughfares,  proclaiming  its 
existence  with  tableau  and  trumpet.  Nataly  encountered  her 
girl's  questions,  much  as  one  seeks  to  quiet  an  enemy.  The 
questions  had  soon  ceased.  Excepting  repulsive  and  rejected 
details,  there  is  little  to  be  learnt  when  a  little  is  known : 
in  populous  communities,  density  only  will  keep  the  little 
out.  Only  stupidity  will  suppose  that  it  can  be  done  for 
the  livelier  young.  English  mothers  forethoughtful  for 
their  girls,  have  to  take  choice  of  how  to  do  battle  with 
a  rough-and-tumble  Old  England,  that  lumbers  bumping 
along,  craving  the  precious  things,  which  can  be  had  but 


DISCLOSES   A   STAGE    ON   THE    DRIVE    TO   PARIS.        119 

in  semblance  tinder  the  conditions  allowed  by  laziness  to 
subsist,  and  so  curst  of  its  shifty  inconsequence  as  to  worship 
in  the  concrete  an  hypocrisy  it  abhors  in  the  abstract. 
Natal y  could  smuggle  or  confiscate  here  and  there  a  news- 
paper ;  she  could  not  interdict  or  withhold  every  one  of 
them,  from  a  girl  ardent  to  be  in  the  race  on  all  topics  of 
popular  interest:  and  the  newspapers  are  occasionally  naked 
savages ;  the  streets  are  imperfectly  garmented  even  by 
day ;  and  we  have  our  stumbling  social  anecdotist,  our 
spout-mouthed  young  man,  our  eminently  silly  woman ;  our 
slippery  one ;  our  slimy  one,  the  Eahab  of  Society  ;  not  to 
speak  of  Mary  the  maid  and  the  footman  William.  A 
vigilant  mother  has  to  contend  with  these  and  the  like  in 
an  increasing  degree.     How  best  ? 

There  is  a  method :  one  that  Colney  Durance  advocated. 
The  girl's  intelligence  and  sweet  blood  invited  a  trial  of 
it.  Since,  as  he  argued,  we  cannot  keep  the  poisonous 
matter  out,  mothers  should  prepare  and  strengthen  young 
women  for  the  encounter  with  it,  by  lifting  the  veil,  baring 
the  world,  giving  them  knowledge  to  arm  them  for  the 
fight  they  have  to  sustain ;  and  thereby  preserve  them 
further  from  the  spiritual  collapse  which  follows  the  nursing 
of  a  false  ideal  of  our  life  in  youth  : — this  being,  Colney 
said,  the  prominent  feminine  disease  of  the  time,  common 
to  all  our  women  ;  that  is,  all  having  leisure  to  shine  in  the 
sun  or  wave  in  the  wind  as  flowers  of  the  garden. 

Whatever  there  was  of  wisdom  in  his  view,  he  spoilt  it 
for  English  hearing,  by  making  use  of  his  dry  compressed 
sentences.  Besides  he  was  a  bachelor ;  therefore  but  a 
theorist.  And  his  illustrations  of  his  theory  were  grotesque ; 
meditation  on  them  extracted  a  corrosive  acid  to  consume, 
in  horrid  derision,  the  sex,  the  nation,  the  race  of  man.  The 
satirist  too  devotedly  loves  his  lash  to  be  a  persuasive 
teacher.  Nataly  had  excuses  to  cover  her  reasons  for  not 
listening  to  him. 

One  teason  was,  as  she  discerned  through  her  confusion 
at  the  thought,  that  the  day  drew  near  lor  her  speaking 
fully  to  Nesta ;  when,  between  what  she  then  said  and  what 
she  said  now,  a  cruel  contrast  might  strike  the  girl  :  and  in 
toneing  revelations  now,  to  be  more  consonant  with  them 
then  ; — in  softening  and  shading  the  edges  of  social  mis- 
conduct, it  seemed  painfully  possible  to  be  sowing  in  th« 


120  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

girl's  mind  something  like  the  reveixe  ot  moral  pr?ee  t«, 
even  to  smoothing  the  way  to  a  rebelliousness  partly  or 
wholly  similar  to  her  own.  But  Nataly's  chief  and  her 
appeasing  reason  for  pursuing  the  conventional  system  with 
this  exceptional  young  creature,  referred  to  the  sentiments 
on  that  subject  of  the  kind  of  young  man  whom  a  mother 
elects  from  among  those  present  and  eligible,  as  perhaps 
next  to  worthy  to  wed  the  girl,  by  virtue  of  good  promise 
in  the  moral  department.  She  had  Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby 
under  view  ;  far  from  the  man  of  her  choice :  and  still  the 
practise  of  decorum,  discretion,  a  pardonable  fastidiousness, 
appears,  if  women  may  make  any  forecast  of  the  behaviour 
of  young  men  or  may  trust  the  faces  they  see,  to  promise 
a  future  stability  in  the  husband.  Assuredly  a  Dudley 
Sowerby  would  be  immensely  startled  to  find  in  his  bride 
a  young  woman  more  than  babily  aware  of  the  existence  of 
one  particular  form  of  naughtiness  on  .earth. 

Victor  was  of  no  help :  he  had  not  an  idea  upon  the  right 
education  of  the  young  of  the  sex.  Repression  and  mystery, 
he  considered  wholesome  for  girls  ;  and  he  considered  the 
enlightening  of  them — to  some  extent — a  prudential  measure 
for  their  defence;  and  premature  instruction  is  a  fire-water 
to  their  wild-in-woods  understanding ;  and  histrionic  inno- 
cence is  no  doubt  the  bloom  on  corruption ;  also  the  facts  of 
current  human  life,  in  the  crude  of  the  reports  or  the  cooked 
of  the  sermon  in  the  newspapers,  are  a  noxious  diet  for  our 
daughters  ;  whom  nevertheless  we  cannot  hope  to  be  feeding 
always  on  milk:  and  there  is  a  time  when  their  adorable 
pretty  ignorance,  if  credibly  it  exists  out  of  noodledom,  is 
harmful : — but  how  beautiful  the  shining  simplicity  of  our 
dear  young  English  girls!— He  was  one  of  the  many  men 
to  whose  minds  women  come  in  pictures  and  are  accepted 
much  as  they  paint  themselves.  Like  his  numerous  fellows, 
too,  he  required  a  conflict  with  them,  and  a  worsting  at  it, 
to  be  taught,  that  they  are  not  the  mere  live  stock  we  scheme 
to  dispose  of  for  their  good  : — unless  Love  should  interpose, 
he  would  have  exclaimed.  He  broke  from  his  fellows  in  his 
holy  horror  of  a  father's  running  counter  to  love.  Nesta 
had  only  to  say,  that  she  loved  another,  for  Dudley  Sowerby 
to  be  withdrawn  into  the  background  of  aspirants.  But 
love  was  unknown  to  the  girl. 

Outwardly,  the  plan  of  the  Drive  to  Paris  had  the  look  of 


DISCLOSES   A   STAGE    ON   THE    DRIVE    TO   PARIS.         121 

Victor's  traditional  hospitality.  Nataly  smiled  at  her  in 
oorrigibly  lagging  intelligence  of  hini,  on  hearing  that  he 
had  invited'a  company :  *'  Lady  Grace,  for  gaiety ;  Feridon 
and  Catkin,  fiddles;  Dudley  Sovverby  and  myself,  flutes; 
Barmby,  intonation  ;  in  all,  nine  of  ns  ;  and  by  the  dear  old 
Normandy  route,  for  the  sake  of  the  voyage,  as  in  <>ld  times; 
towers  of  Dieppe  in  the  morning-light ;  and  the  lovely  road 
to  the  capital!  Just  three  days  in  Paris,  and  Home  by  any 
of  the  other  routes.  It's  the  drive  we  wan>.  Boredom  in 
wet  weather,  we  defy;  we  have  our  Concert — an  hour  at 
night  and  we're  sure  of  sleep."  It  had  a  -sweet  simple  air, 
befitting  him ;  as  when  in  bygone  days  they  travelled  with 
the  joy  of  children.  For  travelling  shook  Nataly  out  of  her 
troubles  and  gave  her  something  of  the  child's  inheritance 
of  the  wisdom  of  life — the  living  ever  10  little  ahead  of  our- 
selves ;  about  as  far  as  the  fox  in  vi'-w  of  the  hunt.  That 
is  the  soul  of  us  out. for  novelty,  devouring  as  it  runs,  an 
endless  feast ;  and  the  body  is  eagerly  after  it,  recording 
the  pleasures,  a  daily  chase.  Remembrance  of  them  is  almost 
a  renewal,  anticipation  a  revival  She  enraptured  Victor 
with  glimpses  of  the  domestic  fun  she  had  ceased  to  show 
sign  of  since  the  revelation  of  Lakelands.  Her  only  regret 
was  on  account  of  the  exclusion  of  Colney  Durance  from  the 
party,  because  of  happy  memories  associating  him  with  the 
fc>eine-land,  and  also  that  his  bilious  criticism  of  his  country- 
men was  moderated  by  a  trip  to  the  Continent.  Fenellan 
reported  Colney  to  be  "  busy  in  the  act  of  distilling  one  of 
his  Prussic  acid  essays."  Fenellan  would  have  jumped  to 
go.  He  informed  Victor,  as  a  probe,  tiiat  the  business  of 
the  Life  Insurance  was  at  periods  "  fearfully  necrological." 
Inexplicably,  he  was  not  invited.  Did  it  mean,  that  he  was 
growing  dull?  He  looked  inside  instead  of  out,  and  lost 
the  clue. 

His  behaviour  on  the  evening  of  the  departure  showed 
plainly  what  would  have  befallen  Mr.  iSowerby  on  the 
expedition,  had  not  he  as  well  as  Colney  been  excluded. 
Two  catriages  and  a  cab  conveyed  the  excursionists,  as  they 
merrily  called  themselves,  to  the  terminus.  They  were 
Victor's  guests ;  they  had  no  trouble,  no  expense,  none  of 
the  nipper  reckonings  which  dog  our  pleasures ; — the  state 
of  pure  bliss.  Fenellan's  enviousness  drove  him  at  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Barmby  until  the  latter  jumped  to  the  seat  beside  Nesta 


122  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

in  her  carriage,  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  and  Mr.  Sowerby 
facing  them.  Lady  Grace  Halley,  in  the  carriage  behind, 
heard  Nesta's  langh;  which  Mr.  Barmby  had  thought 
vacuous,  beseeming  little  girls,  that  laugh  at  nothings.  She 
questioned  Fenellan. 

"  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I  merely  mentioned  that  the  Rev.  gentle- 
man carries  his  musical  instrument  at  the  bottom  of  his 
trunk." 

She  smiled  :  "  And  who  are  in  the  cab?  " 

"  Your  fiddles  are  in  the  cab,  in  charge  of  Peridon  and 
Catkin.  Those  two  would  have  writhed  like  head  and  tail 
of  a  worm,  at  a  division  on  the  way  to  the  station.  Point 
a  finger  at  Peridon,  you  run  Catkin  through  the  body. 
They're  a  fabulous  couple." 

Victor  cut  him  short.  §<I  deny  that  those  two  aie 
absurd." 

M  And  Catkin's  toothache  is  a  galvanic  battery  upon 
Peridon." 

Nataly  strongly  denied  it.  Peridon  and  Catkin  pertained 
to  their  genial  picture  of  the  dear  sweet  nest  in  life  ;  a  dale 
never  traversed  by  the  withering  breath  they  dreaded. 

Fenellan  then,  to  prove  that  he  could  be  as  bad  in  his 
way  as  Colney,  fell  to  work  on  the  absent  Miss  Priscilla 
Graves  and  Mr.  Pempton,  with  a  pitchfork's  exaltation  of 
the  sacred  attachment  of  the  divergently  meritorious  couple, 
and  a  melancholy  reference  to  implacable  obstacles  in  the 
principles  of  each.  The  pair  were  offending  the  amatory 
corner  in  the  generous  good  sense  of  Nataly  and  Victor  ; 
they  were  not  to  be  hotly  protected,  though  they  were  well 
enough  liked  for  their  qualities,  except  by  Lady  Grace,  whc 
revelled  in  the  horrifying  and  scandalizing  of  Miss  Graves. 
Such  a  specimen  of  the  Puritan  middle  English  as  Priscilla 
Graves,  was  eastwind  on  her  skin,  nausea  to  her  gorge. 
She  wondered  at  having  drifted  into  the  neighbourhood  of 
a  person  resembling  in  her  repellent  formal  chill  vii  tuous- 
ness  a  windy  belfry  tower,  down  among  those  districts  of 
suburban  London  or  appalling  provincial  towns  passed  now 
and  then  with  a  shudder,  where  the  funereal  square  bricks- 
up  the  Church,  that  Arctic  hen-mother  sits  on  the  square, 
and  the  moving  dead  are  summoned  to  their  round  of  peni- 
tential exercise  by  a  monosyllabic  tribulation-bell.  Fenel- 
lan's  graphic  sketch  of   the  teetotaller  woman  seeing   her 


DISCLOSES   A   STAGE    ON   THE   DRIVE   TO   PARIS.        123 

admirer  pursued  by  Eumenides  flagons — abominations  of 
emptiness — to  the  banks  of  the  black  river  of  suicides,  where 
the  one  most  wretched  light  is  Inebriation's  nose;  and  of 
the  vegetarian  violoncello's  horror  at  his  vision  of  the  long 
procession  of  the  flocks  and  herds  into  his  lady's  melodious 
Ark  of  a  mouth,  excited  and  delighted  her  antipathy.  She 
was  amused  to  transports  at  the  station,  on  hearing  Mr. 
Barmby,  in  a  voice  all  ophicleide,  remark  :  "  No,  I  carry  no 
instrument."  The  habitation  of  it  at  the  bottom  of  his 
trunk,  was  not  forgotten  when  it  sounded. 

Eeclining  in  warmth  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel  at  night, 
she  said,  just  under  Victor's  ear :  "  Where  are  those  two  ?  " 

"  Bid  me  select  the  couple,"  said  he. 

She  rejoined :  *'  Silly  man ;  "  and  sleepily  gave  him  her 
hand  for  good  night,  and  so  paralyzed  his  arm,  that  he  had 
to  cover  the  continued  junction  by  saying  more  than  he 
intended  :  "  If  they  come  to  an  understanding !  " 

"  Plain  enough  on  one  side." 

"  You  think  it  suitable  ?  " 

"  Perfection  ;  and  well-planned  to  let  them  discover  it." 

*'  This  is  really  my  favourite  route ;  I  love  the  saltwater 
and  the  night  on  deck." 

-  Go  on." 

"How?" 

•'  Number  your  loves.     It  would  tax  your  arithmetic." 

«'  I  can  hata" 

"  Not  me  ?  " 

Positively  the  contrary,  an  impulsive  squeeze  of  fingers 
declared  it;  and  they  broke  the  link,  neither  of  them 
sensibly  hurt;  though  a  leaf  or  two  of  the  ingenuities, 
which  were  her  thoughts,  turned  over  in  the  phantasies  of 
the  lady  ;  and  the  gentleman  was  taught  to  feel  that  a 
never  so  slightly  lengthened  compression  of  the  hand  female 
shoots  within  us  both  straight  and  far  and  round  the 
corners.  There  you  have  Nature,  if  you  want  her  naked  in 
her  elements,  for  a  text.  He  loved  his  Nataly  truly,  even 
fervently,  after  the  twenty  years  of  union  ;  he  looked  about 
at  no  other  woman  ;  it  happened  only  that  the  touch  of  one, 
the  chance  warm  touch,  put  to  motion  the  blind  forces  of 
our  mother  so  remarkably  surcharging  him.  But  it  was 
without  kindling.  The  lady,  the  much  cooler  person,  did 
nurse  a  bit  of  flame.     She  had  a  whimsical  liking  for  the 


124  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

man  who  enjoyed  simple  things  when  commanding  the 
luxuries;  and  it  became  a  fascination,  by  extreme  contrast, 
at  the  reminder  of  his  adventurous  enterprises  in  progress 
while  he  could  so  childishly  enjoy.  Women  who  dance 
with  the  warrior-winner  of  battles,  and  hear  him  talk  his 
ball-room  trifles  to  amuse,  have  similarly  a  smell  of  gun- 
powder to  intoxicate  them. 

For  him,  a  turn  on  the  deck  brought  him  into  new  skies. 
Nataly  lay  in  the  cabin.  She  used  to  be  where  Lady  Grace 
was  lying.  A  sort  of  pleadable,  transparent,  harmless  hal- 
lucination of  the  renewal  of  old  service  induced  him  to 
refresh  and  settle  the  fair  semi-slumberer's  pillow,  and  fix 
the  tarpaulin  over  her  silks  and  wraps  ;  and  bend  his  head 
to  the  soft  mouth  murmuring  thanks.  The  women  who  can 
dare  the  nuit  blanche,  and  under  stars ;  and  have  a  taste  for 
holiday  larks  after  their  thirtieth,  are  rare;  they  are 
precious.  Nataly  nevertheless  was  approved  for  guarding 
her  throat  from  the  night  wind.  And  a  softer  southerly 
breath  never  crossed  Channel !  The  very  breeze  he  had 
wished  for  !     Luck  was  with  him. 

Nesta  sat  by  the  rails  of  the  vessel  beside  her  Louise. 
Mr.  Sowerby  in  passing,  exchanged  a  description  of  printed 
agreement  with  her,  upon  the  beauty  of  the  night — a  good 
neutral  topic  for  the  encounter  of  the  sexes  :  not  that  he 
wanted  it  neutral;  it  furnished  him  with  a  vocabulary. 
Once  he  perceptibly  washed  his  hands  of  dutiful  politeness, 
in  addressing  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  likewise  upon  the 
beauty  of  the  night ;  and  the  French  lady,  thinking — too 
conclusively  from  the  breath  on  the  glass  at  the  moment,  as 
it  is  the  Gallic  habit — that,  if  her  dear  Nesta  must  espouse 
one  of  the  uninteresting  creatures  called  men  iu  her  native 
land,  it  might  as  well  be  this  as  another,  agreed  that  the 
night  was  very  beautiful. 

"He  speaks  grammatical  French,"  Nesta  commented  on 
his  achievement.  "  He  contrives  in  his  walking  not  to  wet 
his  boots,"  mademoi&elle  rejoined. 

Mr.  Peridon  was  a  more  welcome  sample  of  the  islanders, 
despite  an  inferior  pretension  to  accent.  He  burned  to  be 
near  these  ladies,  and  he  passed  them  but  once.  His  en- 
thusiasm for  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  was  notorious.  Grate- 
fully the  compliment  was  acknowledged  by  her,  in  her 
demure  fashion;   with  a  reserve  of  comic  intellectual  con- 


DISCLOSES   A   STAGE    ON   THE    DRIVE    TO   PARIS.        125 

tempt  for  the  man  who  could  not  see  that  women,  or 
Frenchwomen,  or  eminently  she  among  them,  must  have 
their  enthusiasm  set  springing  in  the  breast' before  they  can 
be  swayed  by  the  must  violent  of  outer  gales.  And  say, 
that  she  is  uprooted ; — he  does  but  roll  a  log.  Mr.  Peridon's 
efforts  to  perfect  himself  in  the  French  tongue  touched  her. 

A  night  of  May  leaning  on  June,  is  little  more  than  a 
deliberate  wink  of  the  eye  of  light.  Mr.  Barm  by,  an  exile 
from  the  ladies  by  reason  of  an  addiction  to  tobacco,  quitted 
the  forepart  of  the  vessel  at  the  first  greying.  Now  was 
the  cloak  of  night  worn  threadbare,  and  grey  astir  for  the 
heralding  of  gold,  day  visibly  ready  to  show  its  warmer 
throbs.  The  gentle  waves  were  just  a  stronger  grey  than 
the  sky,  perforce  of  an  interfusion  that  shifted  gradations ; 
they  were  silken,  in  places  oily  grey ;  cold  to  drive  the 
sight  across  their  playful  motiotonousness  for  refuge  on  any 
far  fisher-sail. 

Miss  Radnor  was  asleep,  eyelids  benignly  down,  lips 
mildly  closed.  The  girl's  cheeks  held  colour  to  match  a 
dawn  yet  unawakened  though  born.  They  were  in  a  nest 
shading  amid  silks  of  pale  blue,  and  there  was  a  languid 
flutter  beneath  her  chin  to  the  catch  of  the  morn-breeze.' 
Bacchanal  threads  astray  from  a  disorderly  front-lock  of 
rich  brown  hair  were  alive  over  an  eyebrow  showing  like  a 
seal  upon  the  lightest  and  securest  of  slumbers. 

Mr.  Barmby  gazed,  and  devoutly.  Both  the  ladies  were 
in  their  oblivion  ;  the  younger  quite  saintly;  but  the  couple 
inseparably  framed,  elevating  to  behold ;  a  reproach  to  the 
reminiscence  of  pipes.  He  was  near ;  and  quietly  the  eye- 
lids of  mademoiselle  lifted  on  him.  Her  look  was  grave, 
straight,  unin quiring,  soon  accurately  perusing ;  an  arrow 
of  Artemis  for  penetration.  He  went  by,  with  the  sound 
in  the  throat  of  a  startled  bush-bird  taking  to  wing ;  he 
limped  off  some  nail  of  the  deck,  as  if  that  young  French- 
woman had  turned  the  foot  to  a  hoof.  Man  could  not  be 
more  guiltless,  yet  her  look  had  perturbed  him ;  nails  con- 
spired; in  his  vexation,  he  execrated  tobacco.  And  ask  not 
why,  where  reason  never  was. 

Nesta  woke  babbling  on  the  subject  she  had  relinquished 
for  sleep.     Mademoiselle  touched  a  feathery  finger  at  her 
hair  and  hood  during  their  silvery  French  chimes. 
.    Mr.  Scweiby  presented  the  risen  morning  to  them,  with 


126  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

encomiums,  after  they  had  been  observing  every  variation  in 
it  He  spoke  happily  of  the  pleasant  passage,  and  of  the 
agreeable  night;  particularly  of  the  excellent  idea  of  the 
expedition  by  this  long  route  at  night;  the  prospect  of 
which  had  disfigured  him  with  his  grimace  of  speculation 
— apparently  a  sourness  thut  did  not  exist.  Nesta  had  a 
singular  notion,  coming  of  a  girl's  mingled  observation  and 
intuition,  that  the  impressions  upon  this  gentleman  were  in 
arrear,  did  not  strike  him  till  late.  Mademoiselle  confirmed 
it  when  it  was  mentioned  ;  she  remembered  to  have  noticed 
the  same  in  many  small  things.  And  it  was  a  pointed 
perception. 

Victor  sent  his  girl  down  to  Nataly,  with  a  summons  to 
hurry  up  and  see  sunlight  over  the  waters.  Natalycame; 
she  looked,  and  the  outer  wakened  the  inner,  she  let  the 
light  look  in  on  her,  her  old  feelings  danced  to  her  eyes  like 
a  string  of  bubbles  in  ascent.  "  Victor,  Victor,  it  seems  only 
yesterday  that  we  crossed,  twelve  years  back — was  it  ? — and 
in  May,  and  saw  the  shoal  of  porpoises,  and  five  minutes 
after,  Dieppe  in  view.  Dear  French  people !  I  share  your 
love  for  France." 

"  Home  of  our  holidays  ! — the  '  drives  ; '  and  they  may 
be  the  happiest.  And  fifty  minutes  later  we  were  off  the 
harbour ;  and  Natata  landed,  a  stranger ;  and  at  night  she 
was  the  heroine  of  the  town." 

Victor  turned  to  a  stately  gentleman  and  passed  his 
name  to  Nataly :  "  Sir  Kodwell  Blachington,  a  neighbour 
of  Lakelands."  She  understood  that  Lady  Grace  Halley 
was  acquainted  with  Sir  Kodwell: — hence,  this  dash  of 
brine  to  her  lips  while  she  was  drinking  of  happy  memories, 
and  Victor  evidently  was  pluming  himself  upon  his  usual 
luck  in  the  fortuitous  encounter  with  an  influential  neigh- 
bour of  Lakelands.  He  told  Sir  Bodwell  the  story  of  how 
they  had  met  in  the  salle  a  manger  of  the  hotel  the  impre- 
sario of  a  Concert  in  the  town,  who  had  in  his  hand  the 
doctor's  certificate  of  the  incapacity  of  the  chief  cantatrice 
to  appear,  and  waved  it,  within  a  step  of  suicide.  "  Well, 
to  be  brief,  my  wife — '  noble  dame  Anglaise,'  as  the  man 
announced  her  on  the  Concert  platform,  undertook  one  of 
the  songs,  and  sang  another  of  her  own — pure  contralto 
voice,  as  you  will  say ;  with  the  result  that  there  was  a 
perfect  tumult  of  enthusiasm.     Next  day,  the  waiters  of  the 


A  PATRIOT   ABROAD.  127 

hotel  presented  her  with  a  bouquet  of  Spring  flowers,  white, 
and  central  violets.  It  was  in  the  Paris  papers,  under  the 
heading  :  Une  amie  d' 'outre  Manche — I  think  that  was  it  ?"  he 
asked  Nataly. 

"  I  forget,"  said  she. 

He  glanced  at  her:  a  cloud  had  risen.  He  rallied  her, 
spoke  of  the  old  Norman  silver  cross  which  the  manager  of 
the  Concert  had  sent,  humbly  imploring  her  to  accept  the 
small  memento  of  his  gratitude.  She  nodded  an  excellent 
artificial  brightness. 

And  there  was  the  coast  of  France  under  young  sunlight 
over  the  waters.  Once  more  her  oft-petitioning  wish  through 
the  years,  that  she  had  entered  tbe  ranks  of  professional 
singers,  upon  whom  the  moral  scrutiny  is  not  so  microscopic, 
invaded  her,  resembling  a  tide-swell  into  rock-caves,  which 
have  been  filled  before  and  left  to  emptiness,  and  will  be 
left  to  emptiness  again.  Nataly  had  the  intimation  visiting 
us  when,  in  a  decline  of  physical  power,  the  mind's  ready 
vivacity  to  conjure  illusions  forsakes  us ;  and  it  was,  of  a 
wall  ahead,  and  a  force  impelling  her  against  it,  and  no  hope 
of  deviation.  And  this  is  the  featureless  thing,  Destiny ; 
not  without  eyes,  if  we  have  a  conscience  to  throw  them  into 
it  to  look  at  us. 

Counsel  to  her  to  live  in  the  hour,  came,  as  upon  others 
on  the  vessel,  from  an  active  breath  of  the  salt  prompting 
to  healthy  hunger ;  and  hardly  less  from  the  splendour  of 
the  low  full  sunlight  on  the  waters,  the  skimming  and 
dancing  of  the  thousands  of  golden  shells  away  iiom  under 
the  globe  of  fire. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

A   PATRIOT   ABROAD. 

Nine  days  after  his  master's  departure,  Daniel  Skepsey,  a 
man  of  some  renown  of  late,  as  a  subject  of  reports  and 
comments  in  the  newspapers,  obtained  a  passport,  for  the 
identification,  if  need  were,  of  his  missing  or  misapprehended 
person  in  a  foreign  country,  of  the  language  of  which  three 


128  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

unpronounceable  words  were  knocking  about  his  head  to 
render  the  thought  of  the  passport  a  staff  of  safety ;  and  on 
the  morning  that  followed  he  was  at  speed  through  Normandy, 
to  meet  his  master  rounding  homeward  from  Paris,  at  a  town 
not  to  be  spoken  as  it  is  written,  by  reason  of  the  custom  of 
the  good  people  of  the  country,  with  whom  we  would  fain 
live  on  neighbourly  terms  :— yes,  and  they  had  proof  of  it, 
not  so  very  many  years  back,  when  they  were  enduring  the 
worst  which  can  befall  us : — though  Mr.  Durance,  to  whom 
he  was  indebted  for  the  writing  of  the  place  of  his  destina- 
tion large  on  a  card,  and  the  wording  of  the  French  sound 
beside  it,  besides  the  jotting  down  of  trains  and  the  station 
for  the  change  of  railways,  Mr.  Durance  could  say,  that  the 
active  form  of  our  sympathy  consisted  in  the  pouring  of 
cheeses  upon  them  when  they  were  piostrate  and  unable  to 
resist. 

A  kind  gentleman,  Mr.  Durance,  as  Daniel  Skepsey  had 
lecent  cause  to  know,  but  often  exceedingly  dark;  not  so 
patriotic  as  desireable,  it  was  to  be  feared  ;  and  yet,  strangely 
indeed,  Mr.  Durance  had  said  cogent  things  on  the  art  of 
boxing  and  on  manly  exercises,  and  he  hoped — he  was 
emphatic  in  saying  he  hoped — we  should  be  regenerated. 
He  must  have  meant,  that  boxing  on  a  grand  scale  would 
contribute  to  it.  He  said,  that  a  blow  now  and  then  was 
wholesome  for  us  all.  He  recommended  a  monthly  private 
whipping  for  old  gentlemen  who  decline  the  use  of  the 
gloves,  to  disperse  their  humours ;  not  excluding  Judges 
and  Magistrates : — he  could  hardly  be  in  earnest.  He  spoke 
in  a  clergyman's  voice,  and  said  it  would  be  payment  of 
good  assurance  money,  beneficial  to  their  souls :  he  seemed 
to  mean  it.  He  said,  that  old  gentlemen  were  bottled 
vapours,  and  it  was  good  for  them  to  uncork  them  periodi- 
cally. He  said,  they  should  be  excused  half  the  strokes  if 
they  danced  nightly — they  resented  motion.  He  seemed 
sadly  wanting  in  veneration. 

But  he  might  not  positively  intend  what  he  said.  Skepsey 
could  overlook  everything  he  said,  except  the  girding  at 
England.  For  where  is  a  braver  people,  notwithstanding 
appearances !  Skepsey  knew  of  dozens  of  gallant  bruisers, 
ready  for  the  cry  to  strip  to  the  belt ;  worthy,  with  a  little 
public  encouragement,  to  rank  beside  their  grandfathers  of 
the  King,  in  the  brilliant  times  when  royalty  and  nobility 


A   PATRIOT   ABROAD.  129 

countenanced  the  manly  art,  our  nursery  of  heroes,  and  there 
was  not  the  existing  unhappy  division  of  classes.  He  still 
trusted  to  convince  Mr.  Durance,  by  means  of  argument  and 
happy  instances,  historical  and  immediate,  that  the  English 
may  justly  consider  themselves  the  elect  of  nations,  for 
reasons  better  than  their  accumulation  of  the  piles  of  gold — 
better  than  "  usurers'  reasons,"  as  Mr.  Durance  called  them. 
Much  that  Mr.  Durance  had  said  at  intervals  was,  although 
remembered  almost  to  the  letter  of  the  phrase,  beyond  his 
comprehension,  and  he  put  it  aside,  with  penitent  blinking 
at  his  deficiency. 

All  the  while,  he  was  hearing  a  rattle  of  voluble  tongues 
around  him,  and  a  shout  of  stations,  intelligible  as  a  wash 
of  pebbles,  and  blocks  in  a  torrent.  Generally  the  men 
slouched  when  they  were  not  running.  At  Dieppe  he  had 
noticed  muscular  fellows;  he  admitted  them  to  be  nimbler 
on  the  legs  than  ours  ;  and  that  may  count  both  ways,  he 
consoled  a  patriotic  vanity  by  thinking  ;  instantly  rebukiog 
the  thought ;  for  he  had  read  chapters  of  Military  History. 
He  sat  eyeing  the  front  row  of  figures  in  his  third-class 
carriage,  musing  on  the  kind  of  soldiers  we  might,  heaven 
designing  it,  have  to  face,  and  how  to  beat  them,  until  he 
gazed  on  Rouen,  knowing  by  the  size  of  it  and  by  what 
Mr.  Durance  had  informed  him  of  the  city  on  the  river,  that 
it  must  be  the  very  city  of  Eouen,  not  so  many  years  back 
a  violated  place,  at  the  mercy  of  a  foreign  foe.  Strong  pity 
laid  hold  of  Skepsey.  He  fortified  the  heights  for  defence, 
but  saw  at  a  glance  that  it  was  the  city  for  modern  artillery 
to  command,  crush  and  enter.  He  lost  idea  of  these  afflicted 
foes,  merely  complaining  of  their  attacks  on  England,  and 
their  menaces  in  their  Journals  and  pamphlets ;  and  he 
renounced  certain  views  of  the  country  to  be  marched  over 
on  the  road  by  this  route  to  Paris,  for  the  dictation  of  terms 
of  peace  at  the  gates  of  the  French  capital,  sparing  them  the 
shameful  entry ;  and  this  after  the  rout  of  their  attempt  at 
an  invasion  of  the  Island. 

A  man  opposite  him  was  looking  amicably  on  his  lively 
grey  eyes.  Skepsey  handed  a  card  from  his  pocket.  The 
man  perused  it,  and  crying:  "Dreux?"  waved  out  of  the 
carriage- window  at  a  westerly  distance,  naming  Rouen  as 
not  the  place,  not  at  all,  totally  other.  Thus  we  are  taught, 
that  a  foreign  General,  ignorant  of  the  language,  must  confine 

K 


180  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

himself  to  defensive  operations  at  home ;  he  would  be  a  child 
in  the  hands  of  the  commonest  man  he  meets.  Brilliant  with 
thanks  in  signs,  Skepsey  drew  from  his  friend  a  course  of 
instruction  in  French  names,  for  our  necessities  on  a  line  of 
march.  The  roads  to  Great  Britain's  metropolis,  and  the 
supplies  of  forage  and  provision  at  every  stage  of  a  march 
on  London,  are  marked  in  the  military  offices  of  these  people; 
and  that,  with  their  barking  Journals,  is  a  piece  of  know- 
ledge to  justify  a  belligerent  return  for  it.  Only  we  pray  to 
be  let  live  peacefully. 

Fervently  we  pray  it  when  this  good  man,  a  total  stranger 
to  us,  conducts  an  ignorant  foreigner  from  one  station  to 
another  through  the  streets  of  Eon  en,  after  a  short  stoppage 
at  the  buffet  and  assistance  in  the  identification  of  coins; 
then,  lifting  his  cap  to  us,  retires. 

And  why  be  dealing  wounds  and  death?  It  is  a  more 
blessed  thing  to  keep  the  Commandments.  But  how  is  it 
possible  to  keep  the  Commandments  if  you  have  a  vexatious 
wife? 

Martha  Skepsey  had  given  him  a  son  to  show  the 
hereditary  energy  in  his  crying  and  coughing;  and  it  was 
owing,  he  could  plead,  to  her  habits  and  her  tongue,  that  he 
sometimes,  that  he  might  avoid  the  doing  of  worse — for  she 
wanted  correction  and  was  improved  by  it — courted  the 
excitement  of  a  short  exhibition  of  skill,  man  to  man,  on 
publicans'  first  floors.  He  could  have  told  the  magistrate 
so,  in  part  apology  for  the  circumstances  dragging  him  the 
other  day,  so  recently,  before  his  Worship ;  and  he  might 
have  told  it,  if  he  had  not  remembered  Captain  Dartrey 
Fenellan's  words  about  treating  women  chivalrously  :  which 
was  interpreted  by  Skepsey  as  correcting  them,  when  called 
upon  to  do  it,  but  never  exposing  them : — only,  if  allowed 
to  account  for  the  circumstances  pushing  us  into  the  news- 
papers, we  should  not  present  so  guilty  a  look  before  the 
public. 

Furthermore,  as  to  how  far  it  is  the  duty  of  a  man  to 
serve  his  master,  there  is  likewise  question :  whether  is  he, 
while  receiving  reproof  and  punishment  for  excess  of  zeal 
in  the  service  of  his  master,  not  to  mention  the  welfare  of 
the  country,  morally — without  establishing  it  as  a  principle 
— exonerated  ?  Miss  Graves  might  be  asked  :  save  that  one 
would  not  voluntarily  trouble  a  lady  on  such  subjects.     But 


A   PATRIOT   ABROAD.  131 

supposing  says  the  opposing  counsel,  now  at  work  in  Skep- 
sey's conscience,  supposing  this  act,  for  which,  contraveneing 
the  law  of  the  land,  you  are  reproved  and  punished,  to  be 
agreeable  to  you,  how  then  ?  We  answer,  supposing  it — 
and  we  take  uncomplainingly  the  magistrate's  reproof  and 
punishment — morally  justified  :  can  it  be  expected  of  us  to 
have  the  sense  of  guilt,  although  we  wear  and  know  we  wear 
a  guilty  look  before  the  public  ? 

His  master  and  the  dear  ladies  would  hear  of  it;  perhaps 
they  knew  of  it  now ;  with  them  would  rest  the  settlement 
of  the  distressing  inquiry.  The  ladies  would  be  shocked : 
ladies  cannot  bear  any  semblance  of  roughness,  not  even 
with  the  gloves : — and  knowing,  as  they  must,  that  our 
practise  of  the  manly  art  is  for  their  protection  ! 

Skepsey's  grievous  prospect  of  the  hour  to  come  under 
judgement  of  a  sex  that  was  ever  a  riddle  unread,  clouded 
him  on  the  approach  to  Dreux.  He  studied  the  country 
and  the  people  eagerly ;  he  forbore  to  conduct  great  military 
operations.  Mr.  Durance  had  spoken  of  big  battles  round 
about  the  town  of  Dreux  ;  also  of  a  wonderful  Mausoleum 
there,  not  equally  interesting.  The  little  man  was  in 
deeper  gloom  than  a  day  sobering  on  crimson  dusk  when 
the  train  stopped  and  his  quick  ear  caught  the  sound  of  the 
etation,  as  pronounced  by  his  friend  at  Rouen. 

He  handed  his  card  to  the  station-master.  A  glance,  and 
the  latter  signalled  to  a  porter,  saying :  "  Paradis ;  "  and  the 
porter  laid  hold  of  Skepsey's  bag.  Skepsey's  grasp  was 
firm;  he  pulled,  the  porter  pulled.  Skepsey  heard  explana- 
tory speech  accompanying  a  wrench.  He  wrenched  back 
with  vigour,  and  in  his  own  tongue  explained,  that  he  held 
to  the  bag  because  his  master's  letters  were  in  the  bag,  all 
the  way  from  England.  For  a  minute,  there  was  a  down- 
right trial  of  muscle  and  will :  the  porter  appeared  furiously 
excited,  Skepsey  had  a  look  of  cooled  steel.  Then  the 
Frenchman,  requiring  to  shrug,  gave  way  to  the  English- 
man's eccentric  obstinacy,  and  signified  that  he  was  his 
guide.  Quite  so,  and  Skepsey  showed  alacrity  and  confidence 
in  following;  he  carried  his  bag.  But  with  the  remembrance 
of  the  kindly  serviceable  man  at  Rouen,  he  sought  to  convey 
to  the  porter,  that  the  terms  of  their  association  were  cordial. 
A  waving  of  the  right  hand  to  the  heavens  ratified  the 
treaty  on  the  French  side.     Nods  and  smiles  and  gesticula* 


132  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

tions,  with  across-Channel  vocables,  as  it  were  Dover  cliffs 
to  Calais  sands  and  back,  pleasantly  beguiled  the  way  down 
to  the  Hotel  du  Paradis,  under  the  Mausoleum  heights, 
where  Skepsey  fumbled  at  his  pocket  for  coin  current;  but 
the  Frenchman,  all  shaken  by  a  tornado  of  negation,  clapped 
him  on  the  shoulder,  and  sang  him  a  quatrain.  Skepsey 
had  in  politeness  to  stand  listening,  and  blinking,  plunged 
in  the  contrition  of  ignorance,  eclipsed.  He  took  it  to 
signify  something  to  the  effect,  that  money  should  not  pass 
between  friends.  It  was  the  amatory  farewell  address  of 
Henri  IV.  to  his  Charmanie  Gabrielle :  and  with — 

"  Perce'  de  mille  dardst 
Uhonneur  m'appelle 
Au  champ  de  Mars'* 

the  Frenchman,  in  a  backing  of  measured  steps,  apologized 
for  his  enforced  withdrawal  from  the  stranger  who  had 
captured  his  heart. 

Skepsey's  card  was  taken  in  the  passage  of  the  hotel.  A 
clean- capped  maid,  brave  on  the  legs,  like  all  he  had  seen 
of  these  people,  preceded  him  at  quick  march  to  an  upper 
chamber.  When  he  descended,  bag  in  hand,  she  flung  open 
the  salon-door  of  a  table  d'hote,  where  a  goodly  number 
were  dining  and  chattering ;  waiters  drew  him  along  to  the 
section  occupied  by  his  master's  party.  A  chair  had  been 
kept  vacant  for  him  ;  his  master  waved  a  hand,  his  dear 
ladies  graciously  smiled;  he  stuck  the  bag  in  front  of  a 
guardian  foot,  growing  happy.  He  could  fancy  they  had 
not  seen  the  English  newspapers.  And  his  next  observation 
of  the  table  showed  him  wrecked  and  lost :  Miss  Nesta's 
face  was  the  oval  of  a  woeful  0  at  his  wild  behaviour  in 
England  during  their  absence.  She  smiled.  Skepsey  had 
nevertheless  to  consume  his  food — excellent,  very  tasty  soup 
— with  the  sour  sauce  of  the  thought  that  he  must  be 
tongue-tied  in  his  defense  for  the  time  of  the  dinner. 

"  No,  dear  Skips,  please !  you  are  to  enjoy  yourself,"  said 
Nesta. 

He,  answered  confusedly,  trying  to  assure  her  that  he 
was  doing  so,  and  he  choked. 

His  master  had  fixed  his  arrival  for  twenty  minutes 
earlier.  Skepsey  spoke  through  a  cough  of  long  delays  at 
bta tions.      The    Rev.    Septimus    Barmby,    officially    peace- 


A   PATRIOT   ABROAD.  133 

maker,  sounded  the  consequent  excuse  for  a  belated  comer. 
It  was  final ;  such  is  the  power  of  sound.  Looks  were  cast 
from  the  French  section  of  the  table  at  the  owner  of  the 
prodigious  organ.  Some  of  the  younger  men,  intent  on  the 
charms  of  Albion's  daughters,  expressed  in  a  sign  and  a 
word  or  two  alarm  at  what  might  be  beneath  the  flooring: 
and  "  Pas  encore  Lui  I  "  and  "  Son  avant-courier  !  "  and  other 
flies  of  speech  passed  on  a  whiff,  under  politest  of  cover,  not 
to  give  offence.     But  prodigies  claim  attention. 

Our  English,  at  the  close  of  the  dinner,  consented  to  say- 
it  was  good,  without  specifying  a  dish,  because  a  selection 
of  this  or  that  would  have  seemed  to  italicize,  aud  commit 
them,  in  the  presence  of  ladies,  to  a  notice  of  the  matter- 
of-course,  beneath  us,  or  the  confession  of  a  low  sensual 
enjoyment;  until  Lady  Grace  Halley  named  the  particular 
dressing  of  a  tete  de  veau  approvingly  to  Victor;  and  he 
stating,  that  he  had  offered  a  suggestion  for  the  menu  of  the 
day,  Nataly  exclaimed,  that  she  had  suspected  it :  upon 
which  Mr.  Sowerby  praised  the  menu,  Mr.  Barmby,  Peridon 
and  Catkin  named  other  dishes,  there  was  the  right  after- 
dinner  ring  in  Victor's  ears,  thanks  to  the  woman  of  the 
world  who  had  travelled  round  to  nature  and  led  the 
shackled  men  to  deliver  themselves  heartily.  One  tap,  and 
they  are  free.  That  is,  in  the  moments  after  dinner,  when 
nature  is  at  the  gates  with  them.  Only,  it  must  be  a  lady 
and  a  prevailing  lady  to  give  the  tap.  They  need  (our 
English)  and  will  for  the  a.ges  of  the  process  of  their 
transformation  need  a  queen. 

Skepsey,  bag  in  hand,  obeyed  the  motion  of  his  master's 
head  and  followed  him. 

He  was  presently  bac>,  to  remain  with  the  ladies  during 
his  master's  perusal  of  letters.  Nataly  had  decreed  that  he 
was  not  to  be  troubled ;  so  Nesta  and  mademoiselle  besought 
him  for  a  recital  of  his  French  adventures;  and  strange  to 
say,  he  had  nothing  to  tell.  The  journey,  pregnant  at  the 
start,  exciting  in  the  course  of  it,  was  absolutely  blank  at 
the  termination.  French  people  had  been  very  kind;  he 
could  not  say  i^-ore.  But  there  was  more ;  there  was  a 
remarkable  fulness,  if  only  he  could  subordinate  it  to  narra- 
tive. The  little  man  did  not  know,  that  time  was  wanted 
for  imagination  to  make  the  roadway  or  riverway  of  a  true 
Btory,  unless  w«  press    to  invent;    his  mind   had  been  too 


134  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

busy  on  the  way  for  him  to  clothe  in  speech* his  impressions 
of  the  passage  of  incidents  at  the  call  for  them.  Things 
had  happened,  numbers  of  interesting  minor  things,  but 
they  all  slipped  as  water  through  the  fingers ;  and  he  being 
of  the  band  of  honest  creatures  who  will  not  accept  a  lift 
from  fiction,  drearily  he  sat  before  the  ladies,  confessing  to 
an  emptiness  he  was  far  from  feeling. 

Nesta  professed  excessive  disappointment.  "Now,  if  it 
had  been  in  England,  Skips ! "  she  said,  under  her  mother's 
gentle  gloom  of  brows. 

He  made  show  of  melancholy  submission. 

"  There,  Skepsey,  you  have  a  good  excuse,  we  are  sure," 
Natal y  said. 

And  women,  when  they  are  such  ladies  as  these,  are  sent 
to  prove  to  us  that  they  can  be  a  blessing;  instead  of  the 
dreadful  cry  to  Providence  for  the  reason  of  the  spread  of 
the  race  of  man  by  their  means !  He  declared  his  readiness, 
rejecting  excuses,  to  state  his  case  to  them,  but  for  his  fear 
of  having  it  interpreted  as  an  appeal  for  their  kind  aid  in 
obtaining  his  master's  forgiveness.  Mr.  Durance  had  very 
considerately  promised  to  intercede.  Skepsey  dropped  a 
hint  or  two  of  his  naughty  proceedings  drily,  aware  that 
their  untutored  antipathy  to  the  manlj*  art  would  not  permit 
of  warmth. 

Nesta  said  :  "Do  you  know,  Skips,  we  saw  a  grand 
exhibition  of  fencing  in  Paris." 

He  sighed  "  Ladies  can  look  on  at  fencing !  foils  and 
masks !  Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan  has  shown  me,  and  says, 
the  French  are  our  masters  at  it."  He  bowed  constrainedly 
to  mademoiselle. 

"  You  box,  M.  Skepsey !  "  she  said. 

His  melancholy  increased:  "Much  discouragement  from 
Government,  Society  !  If  ladies  .  .  .  but  I  do  not  venture. 
They  are  not  against  Games.  But  these  are  not  a  protection 
.  .  .  to  them,  when  needed;  to  the  country.  The  country 
seems  asleep  to  its  position.  Mr.  Durance  has  remarked  on 
it: — though  I  would  not  always  quote  Mr.  Durance  .  .  . 
indeed,  he  says,  that  England  has  invested  an  Old  Maid's 
All  in  the  Millennium,  and  is  ruined  if  it  delays  to  come. 
'  Old  maid,'  I  do  not  see.  I  do  not — if  I  may  presume  to 
speak  of  myself  in  the  same  breath  with  so  clever  a  gentle- 
man, agree  with  Mr.  Durance  in  everything.     But  the  chesfc- 


SKEPSEY  S    MISCONDUCT.  135 

measurement  of  recruits,  the  stature  of  the  men  enlisted, 
prove  that  we  are  losing  the  nursery  of  our  soldiers." 

"We  are  taking  them  out  of  the  nursery,  Skips,  if  you're 
for  quoting  Captain  Dartrey,"  said  Nesta.  "We'll  never 
haul  down  our  flag,  though,  while  we  have  him !  " 

"  Ah  !  Captain  Dartrey  !  "  Skepsey  was  refreshed  by  the 
invocation  of  the  name. 

A  summons  to  his  master's  presence  cut  short  something 
he  was  beginning  to  say  about  Captain  Dartrey. 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

ACCOUNTS   FOR   SKEPSEY's   MISCONDUCT,   SHOWING   HOW  IT  AFFECTS 

NATALY. 

His  master  opened  on  the  bristling  business. 

"  What's  this,  of  your  name  in  the  papers,  your  appearing 
before  a  magistrate,  and  a  fine  ?     Tell  the  tale  shortly." 

Skepsey  fell  upon  his  attitude  for  dialectical  defence :  the 
modest  form  of  the  two  hands  at  rolling  }>lay  and  the  head 
deferentially  sideeast.  But  knowing  that  he  had  gratified 
his  personal  tastes  in  the  act  of  serving  his  master's  interests, 
an  interfusion  of  sentiments  plunged  him  into  self-conscious- 
ness ;  an  unwonted  state  with  him,  clogging  to  a  simple 
story. 

"  First,  sir,  I  would  beg  you  to  pardon  the  printing  of 
your  name  beside  mine  .  .  . " 

"  i  ush  :  on  with  you." 

"  Only  to  say,  necessitated  by  the  circumstances  of  thu 
case.  I  read,  that  there  was  laughter  in  the  court  at  my 
exculpation  of  my  conduct — as  I  have  to  call  it;  and  there 
may  have  been.  I  may  have  expressed  mj'self.  ...  I  have 
a  strong  feeling  for  the  welfare  of  the  country." 

"  So,  it  seems,  you  said  to  the  magistrate.  Do  you  tel1 
me,  that  the  cause  of  your  gross  breach  of  the  law,  was  a 
consideration  for  the  welfare  of  the  country  ?  Eun  on  the 
facts." 

"  The  facts — I  must  have  begun  badly,  sir."  Skepsey 
rattled  the  dry  facts  in  his  head  to  right  them.     From  his 


136  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

not  having  "begun  well,  they  had  become  dry  as  things 
underfoot.  It  was  an  error  to  have  led  off  with  ihe  senti- 
ments. "  Two  very,  two  very  respectable  persons — respect- 
able— were  desirous  to  witness  a  short  display  of  my,  my 
system,  I  would  say  ;  of  my  science,  they  call  it." 

"Don't  be  nervous.  To  the  point;  you  went  into  a  field 
five  miles  out  of  London,  in  broad  day,  and  stood  in  a  ring, 
the  usual  riff-raff  about  you  !  " 

"With  the  gloves:  and  not  for  money,  sir:  for  the  trial 
of  skill;  not  very  many  people.  I  cannot  quite  see  the 
breach  of  the  law." 

"80  you  told  the  magistrate.  You  were  fined  for  your 
inability  to  quite  see      And  you  had  to  give  security." 

44  Mr.  Durance  was  kindly  responsible  for  me,  sir :  an 
acquaintance  of  the  magistrate." 

44  This  boxing  of  yours  is  a  positive  mania,  Skepsey.  You 
must  try  to  get  the  better  of  it — must !  And  my  name  too  ! 
I'm  to  be  proclaimed,  as  having  in  my  service  an  inveterate 
pugilist — who  breaks  the  law  from  patriotism  !  Male  or 
female,  these  very  respectable  persons — the  people  your 
show  was  meant  for  ?  " 

"  Male,  sir.  Females !  .  .  .  that  is,  not  the  respectable 
ones." 

"  Take  the  opinion  of  the  respectable  ones  for  your  standard 
of  behaviour  in  future." 

"It  was  a  mere  trial  of  skill,  sir,  to  prove  to  one  of  the 
spectators,  that  I  could  be  as  good  as  my  word.  I  wished, 
I  may  say,  to  conciliate  him,  partly.  He  would  not — he 
judged  by  size — credit  me  with  ...  he  backed  my  adversary 
Jerry  Scroom — a  sturdy  boxer,  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  first  principles." 

"You  beat  him?" 

"I  think  1  taught  the  man  that  I  could  instruct,  sir;  he 
was  complimentary  before  we  parted.  He  thought  I  could 
not  have  lasted.  After  the  se<  oud  round,  the  police  ap- 
peared." 

44  And  you  ran  !  " 

"  No,  sir ;  I  had  nothing  on  my  conscience." 

"  Why  not  have  had  your  pugilistic  display  in  a  publican's 
room  in  town,  where  you  could  have  hammer-nailed  and 
ding-donged   to  your   heart's  content  for   as   long   as  you 

liked  r 


SKEPSEY  S   MISCONDU 


"  That  would  have  been  preferable,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  safety  from  intrusion,  I  can  admit — speaking  humbly. 
But  one  of  'the  parties — I  had  a  wish  to  gratify  him — is  a 
lover  of  old  English  times  and  habits  and  our  country 
scenes.  He  wanted  it  to  take  place  on  green  grass.  We 
drove  over  Hampstead  in  three  carts  and  a  gig,  as  a  company 
of  pleasure — as  it  was.  A  very  beautiful  morning.  There 
was  a  rest  at  a  public-house.  Mr.  Shaplow  traces  the  mis- 
fortune to  that.  Mr.  Jarniman,  I  hear,  thinks  it  what  he 
calls  a  traitor  in  the  camp.  I  saw  no  sign ;  we  were  all 
merry  and  friendly." 

"  Jarniman  ?  "  said  Victor  sharply.  "  Who  is  the  Jarni- 
man?" 

"  Mr.  Jarniman  is,  I  am  to  understand  from  the  acquaint- 
ance introducing  us — a  Mr.  Shaplow  I  met  in  the  train  from 
Lakelands  one  day,  and  again  at  the  corner  of  a  street 
near  Drury  Lane,  a  ham  and  beef  shop  kept  by  a  Mrs. 
Jarniman,  a  very  stout  lady,  who  does  the  chief  carving  in 
the  shop,  and  is  the  mother  of  Mr.  Jarniman  :  he  is  in  a 
confidential  place,  highly  trusted."  Skepsey  looked  up  from 
the  hands  he  soaped :  "  He  is  a  curious  mixture ;  he  has 
true  enthusiasm  for  boxing,  he  believes  in  ghosts.  He 
mourns  for  the  lost  days  of  prize-fighting,  he  thinks  that 
spectres  are  on  the  increase.  He  has  a  very  large  appetite, 
depressed  spirits.  Mr.  Shaplow  informs  me  he  is  a  man  of 
substance,  in  the  service  of  a  wealthy  lady  in  poor  health, 
expecting  a  legacy  and  her  appearance  to  him.  He  has  the 
look — Mr.  Shaplow  assures  me  he  does  not  drink  to  excess  : 
he  is  a  slow  drinker." 

Victor  straightened  :  "  Bad  way  of  health,  you  said?" 

"Mr.  Jarniman  spoke  of  his  expectations  as  being  imme- 
diate :  he  put  it,  that  he  expected  her  spirit  to  be  out  for 
him  to  meet  it  any  day— or  night.  He  desires  it.  He  says, 
she  has  promised  it — on  oath,  he  says,  and  must  feel  that 
she  must  do  her  duty  to  him  before  she  goes,  if  she  is  to 
appear  to  him  with  any  countenance  after.  But  he  is 
anxious  for  her  in  any  case  to  show  herself,  and  says,  he 
should  not  have  the  heart  to  reproach  her.  He  has  principles, 
a  tear  for  suifering;  he  likes  to  be  made  to  cry.  Mrs. 
Jarniman,  his  mother,  he  is  not  married,  is  much  the  same 
so  far,  except  ghosts  ;  she  will  not  have  them  ;  except  after 
strong  tea,  they  come,  she  says,  come  to  her  bed.     She  is 


138  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

foolish  enough  to  sleep  in  a  close-curtained  bed.  But  the 
poor  lady  is  so  exceedingly  stout  that  a  puff  of  cold  would 
carry  her  off,  she  fears." 

Victor  stamped  his  foot.  "This  man  JarniuiRn  serves 
a  lady  now  in  a— serious,  does  he  say  ?     Was  he  precise?" 

"  Mr.  Jarniman  spoke  of  a  remarkable  number  of  diseases  ; 
very  complicated,  he  says.  He,  has  no  opinion  of  doctors. 
He  says,  that  the  lady's  doctor  and  the  chemist — she  sits  in 
a  chemist's  shop  and  swallows  other  people's  prescriptions 
that  take  her  fancy.  He  says,  her  continuing  to  live  is 
wonderful.  He  has  no  reason  to  hurry  her,  only  for  the 
satisfaction  of  a  natural  curiosity." 

"  He  mentioned  her  name  ?  " 

*'  No  name,  sir." 

Skepsey's  limpid  grey  eyes  confirmed  the  negative  to 
Victor,  who  was  assured  that  the  little  man  stood  clean  of 
any  falsity. 

"  You  are  not  on  equal  terms.  You  and  the  magistrate 
have  helped  him  to  know  who  it  is  you  serve,  rfkepsey." 

"  Would  you  please  to  direct  me,  sir  ?  " 

"Another  time.  Now  go  and  ease  your  feet  with  a  run 
over  the  town.  We  have  music  in  half  an  hour.  That  you 
like,  I  know.     See  chiefly  to  amusing  yourself." 

Skepsey  turned  to  go ;  he  murmured,  that  he  had  enjoyed 
his  trip. 

Victor  checked  him  :  it  was  to  ask  whether  this  Jarniman 
had  specified  one,  any  one  of  the  numerous  diseases  afflicting 
his  aged  mistress. 

Now  Jarniman  had  shocked  Skepsey  with  his  blunt  titles 
for  a  couple  of  the  foremost  maladies  assailing  the  poor 
lady's  decayed  constitution :  not  to  be  mentioned,  Skepsey 
thought,  in  relation  to  ladies;  whose  organs  and  functions 
we,  who  pay  them  a  proper  homage  by  restricting  them  to 
the  sphere  so  worthily  occupied  by  their  mothers  up  to  the 
very  oldest  date,  respectfully  curtain ;  their  accepted  masters 
are  chivalrous  to  them,  deploring  their  need  at  times  for  the 
doctors  and  drugs.  He  stood  looking  most  unhappy.  "  She 
was  to  appear,  sir,  in  a  few — perhaps  a  week,  a  month." 

A  nod  dismissed  him. 

The  fun  of  the  expedition  (and  Dudley  Sowerby  had  wound 
himself  up  to  relish  it)  was  at  night  in  the  towns,  when  the 
sound   of  instrumental   and  vocal   music  attracted   crowds 


BKEPSEY'S   MISCONDUCT.  139 

beneath  the  windows  of  the  hotel,  and  they  heard  zon,  zon, 
violon,flilteet  basse;  not  bad  fluting,  excellent  fiddling,  such 
singing  as  «,  maestro,  conducting  his  own  Opera,  would  have 
approved.  So  Victor  said  of  his  darlings'  voices.  Nesta's 
and  her  mother's  were  a  perfect  combination  ;  Mr.  Barmby's 
trompe  in  union,  sufficiently  confirmed  the  popular  impres- 
sion, that  they  were  artistes.  They  had  been  ceremoniously 
ushered  to  their  carriages,  with  expressions  of  gratitude,  at 
the  departure  from  Rouen ;  and  the  Boniface  at  Gisors  had 
entreated  them  to  stay  another  night,  to  give  an  entertain- 
ment. Victor  took  his  pleasure  in  letting  it  be  known,  that 
they  were  a  quiet  English  family,  simply  keeping-up  the 
habits  they  practiced  in  Old  England :  all  were  welcome  to 
hear  them  while  they  were  doing  it ;  but  they  did  not  give 
entertainments. 

The  pride  of  the  pleasure  of  reversing  the  general  idea  of 
English  dulness  among  our  neighbours,  was  perceived  to 
have  laid  fast  hold  of  Dudley  Sowerby  at  Dreux.  He  was 
at  the  window  from  time  to  time,  counting  heads  below. 
For  this  reason  or  a  better,  he  begged  Nesta  to  supplant  the 
flute  duet  with  the  soprano  and  contralto  of  the  Helena  section 
of  the  Mefistofele,  called  the  Serenade:  La  Luna  immobile.  She 
consulted  her  mother,  and  they  sang  it.  The  crowds  below, 
swoln  to  a  block  of  the  street,  were  dead  still,  showing  the 
instinctive  good  manners  of  the  people.  Then  mademoiselle 
astonished  them  with  a  Proven  gal  or  Cevennes  air,  Huguenot, 
though  she  was  Catholic;  but  it  suited  her  mezzo-soprano 
tones;  and  it  rang  massively  of  the  martial-religious.  To 
what  heights  of  spiritual  grandeur  might  not  a  Huguenot 
France  have  marched !  Dudley  Sowerby,  heedlessly,  under 
an  emotion  that  could  be  stirred  in  him  with  force,  by  the 
soul  of  religion  issuing  through  music,  addressed  his  ejacu- 
lation to  Lady  Grace  Halley.  She  did  not  shrug  or  snub 
him,  but  rejoined :  "  I  could  go  to  battle  with  that  song  in 
the  ears."  She  liked  seeing  him  so  happily  transformed; 
and  liked  the  effect  of  it  on  Nest-i  when  his  face  shone  in 
talking.  He  was  at  home  with  the  girl's  eyes,  as  he  had 
never  been.  A  song  expressing  in  one  the  combative  and 
devotional,  went  to  the  springs  of  his  blood  ;  for  he  was  of 
an  old  warrior  race,  beneath  the  thick  crust  of  imposed 
peaceful  maxims  and  commercial  pursuits  and  habitual  stiff 
correctness      As  much    as  wine,  will  music  bring  out   the 


140  ONE    OP   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

native  bent  of  the  civilized  man  :  endow  him  with  language 
too.  He  was  as  if  unlocked ;  he  met  Nesta's  eyes  and  ran 
in  a  voluble  interchange,  that  gave  him  flattering  after- 
thoughts ;  and  at  the  moment  sensibly  a  new  and  assured, 
or  to  some  extent  assured,  station  beside  a  girl  so  vivid  ;  by 
™hich  the  young  lady  would  be  helped  to  perceive  his 
unvoiced  solider  gifts. 

Nataly  observed  them,  thinking  of  Victor's  mastering 
subtlety.  She  had  hoped  (having  clearly  seen  the  sheep's 
eye  in  the  shepherd)  that  Mr.  Barmby  would  be  watchful  to 
act  as  a  block  between  them  ;  and  therefore  she  had  stipu- 
lated for  his  presence  on  the  journey.  She  remembered 
Victor's  rapid  look  of  readiness  to  consent : — he  reckoned 
how  naturally  Mr.  Barmby  would  serve  as  a  foil  to  any 
younger  man.  Mr.  Barmby  had  tried  all  along  to  perform 
his  part :  he  had  always  been  thwarted ;  notably  once  at 
Gisors,  where  by  some  cunning  management  he  and  made- 
moiselle found  themselves  in  the  cell  of  the  prisoner's  Nail- 
wrought  work  while  Nesta  had  to  take  Sowerby's  hand  for 
help  at  a  passage  here  and  there  along  the  narrow  outer 
castle-walls.  And  Mr.  Barmby,  upon  occasions,  had  set  that 
dimple  in  Nesta's  cheek  quivering,  though  Simeon  Fenellan 
was  not  at  hand,  and  there  was  no  Telling  how  it  was  done, 
beyond  the  evidence  that  Victor  willed  it  so. 

From  the  day  of  the  announcement  of  Lakelands,  she  had 
been  brought  more  into  contact  with  Li?  genius  of  dexterity 
and  foresight  than  ever  previously  :  she  had  bent  to  the 
burden  of  it  more  ;  had  seen  herself  and  everjbody  else  out- 
stripped— herself,  of  course  ;  she  did  not  count  in  a  struggle 
with  him.  But  since  that  red  dawn  of  Lakelands,  it  was 
almost  as  if  he  had  descended  to  earth  from  the  skies.  She 
now  saw  his  mortality  in  the  miraculous  things  he  did. 
The  reason  of  it  was,  that  through  the  perceptible  various 
arts  and  shifts  on  her  level,  an  opposing  spirit  had  plainer 
view  of  his  aim,  to  judge  it.     She  thought  it  a  mean  one. 

The  power  it  had  to  hurry  her  with  the  strength  of  a 
torrent  to  an  end  she  dreaded,  impressed  her  physically ;  so 
far  subduing  her  mind,  in  consequence,  as  to  keep  the  idea 
of  absolute  resistance  obscure,  though  her  bosom  heaved 
with  the  breath ;  but  what  was  her  own  of  a  mind  hung 
hovering  above  him,  criticizing;  and  involuntarily,  discern* 
fortingly.     She   could   have   prayed    to    be   led   blindly   or 


skepsey's  misconduct.  141 

blindly  dashed  on  :  she  could  trust  him  for  sucoess  ;  and  her 
critical  mind  seemed  at  times  a  treachery.  Still  she  was 
compelled"  to  judge. 

When  he  said  to  her  at  night,  pressing  both  her  hands  : 
"  This  is  the  news  of  the  day,  my  love  !  It's  death  at  last. 
We  shall  soon  be  thanking  heaven  for  freedom ;  "  her  fingers 
writhed  upon  his  and  gripped  them  in  a  torture  of  remorse 
on  his  behalf.  A  shattering  throb  of  her  heart  gave  her 
sight  of  herself  as  well.  For  so  it  is  with  the  woman  who 
loves  in  subjection,  she  may  be  a  critic  of  the  man,  she  is 
his  accomplice. 

"  You  have  a  letter,  Yictor  ?  " 

"  Confirmation  all  round :  Fenellan,  Themison,  and  now 
Skepsey." 

He  told  her  the  tale  of  Skepsey  and  Jarniman,  colouring 
it,  as  any  interested  animated  conduit  necessarily  will. 
Neither  of  them  smiled. 

The  effort  to  think  soberly  exhausted  and  rolled  her  back 
on  credulity. 

It  might  not  be  to-day  or  next  week  or  month :  but  so 
much  testimony  pointed  to  a  day  within  the  horizon,  surely! 

She  bowed  her  head  to  heaven  for  forgiveness.  The 
murderous  hope  stood  up,  stood  out  in  forms  and  pictures. 
There  was  one  of  a  woman  at  her  ease  at  last  in  the  recep- 
tion of  guests;  contrasting  with  an  ironic  haunting  figure 
of  the"  woman  of  queenly  air  and  stature  under  a  finger  of 
scorn  for  a  bold-faced  impostor.  Nataly's  lips  twitched  at 
the  remembrance  of  quaint  whimpers  of  complaint  to  the 
Fates,  for  directing  that  a  large  instead  of  a  rather  diminu- 
tive woman  should  be  the  social  offender  fearing  exposure. 
Majesty  in  the  criminal's  dock,  is  a  confounding  spectacle. 
To  the  bosom  of  the  majestic  creature,  all  her  glorious 
attributes  have  become  the  executioner's  implements.  She 
must  for  her  soul's  health  believe  that  a  day  of  release  and 
exoneration  approaches. 

**  Barmby  ! — if  my  dear  girl  would  like  him  best,"  Victor 
said,  "in  tenderest  undertones,  observing  the  shadowing 
variations  of  her  face  ;  and  pierced  her  cruelly,  past  explana- 
tion or  understanding; — not  that  she  would  have  objected 
to  the  Eev.  Septimus  as  officiating  clergyman. 

She  nodded.    Down  rolled  the  first  big  tear. 

We   cry   to   women ;  Land,  ho  I — a   land  of  palms  after 


142  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

storms  at  sea ;  and  at  once  they  inundate  us  with  a  deluge 
of  eye- water. 

"Half  a  minute,  dear  Victor,  not  longer,"  Nataly  said, 
weeping,  near  on  laughing  over  his  look  of  wanton  abandon- 
ment to  despair  at  sight  of  her  tears.  "  Don't  mind  me.  I 
am  rather  like  Fenellan's  laundress,  the  tearful  woman  whose 
professional  apparatus  was  her  soft  heart  and  a  cake  of  soap. 
Skepsey  has  made  his  peace  with  you  ?  " 

Victor  answered  :  "  Yes,  yes ;  I  see  what  he  has  been 
about.  We're  a  mixed  lot,  all  of  us — the  best!  You've 
noticed,  Skepsey  has  no  laugh:  however  absurd  the  thing 
he  tells  you,  not  a  smile !  " 

**  But  you  trust  his  eyes ;  you  look  fathoms  into  them. 
Captain  Dartrey  thinks  him  one  of  the  men  most  in  earnest 
of  any  of  his  country." 

"  So  Nataly  of  course  thinks  the  same.  And  he's  a  worthy 
little  velocipede,  as  Fenellan  calls  him.  One  wishes  Colney 
had  been  with  us.  Only  Colney! — pity  one  can't  cut  his 
talons  for  the  space  before  they  grow  again." 

Ay,  and  in  the  presence  of  Colney  Durance,  Victor  would 
not  have  been  so  encouraging,  half  boyishly  caressing,  with 
Dudley  Sowerby !  It  was  the  very  manner  to  sow  seed  of 
imitativeness  in  the  girl,  devoted  as  she  was  to  her  father. 
Nataly  sighed,  foreseeing  evil,  owning  it  a  superstition, 
feeling  it  a  certainty.  We  are  easily  prophets,  sure  of  being 
justified,  when  the  cleverness  of  schemes  devoted  to  material 
ends  appears  most  delicately  perfect.  History,  the  tales  of 
households,  the  tombstone,  are  with  us  to  inspire.  Id 
Natal v's  bosom,  the  reproof  of  her  inefficiency  for  offering 
counsel  where  Victor  for  his  soul's  sake  needed  it,  was  begin- 
ning to  thunder  at  whiles  as  a  reproach  of  unfittingness  in 
his  mate,  worse  than  a  public  denunciation  of  the  sin  against 
Society. 

It  might  be  decreed  that  she  and  Society  were  to  come  to 
reconcilement.  A  pain  previously  thought  of,  never  pre- 
viously so  realized,  seized  her  at  her  next  sight  of  Nesta. 
Sue  had  not  taken  in  her  front  mind  the  contrast  of  the  inno- 
cent one  condemned  to  endure  the  shadow  from  which  the 
guilty  was  by  a  transient  ceremony  released.  Nature  could 
at  a  push  be  eloquent  to  defend  the  guilty.  Not  a  word  of 
vindicating  eloquence  rose  up  to  clear  the  innocent.  Nothing 
that  she  could  do ;  no  devotedness,  not  any  sacrifice,  and  no 


A  YOUNG   MATD*S   IMAGININGS.  143 

treaty  of  peace,  no  possible  joy  to  come,  nothing  could  remove 
the  shadow  from  her  child.  "  She  dreamed  of  the  succour  in 
eloquence,'  to  charm  the  ears  of  chosen  juries  while  a  fact 
spoke  over  the  population,  with  a  relentless  rolling  out  of 
its  one  hard  word.  But  eloquence,  powerful  on  her  behalf, 
was  dumb  when  referred  to  Nesta.  It  seemed  a  cruel  mys- 
tery. How  was  it  permitted  by  the  Merciful  Disposer  !  .  .  . 
Nataly's  intellect  and  her  reverence  clashed.  They  clash 
to  the  end  of  time  if  we  persist  in  regarding  the  Spirit 
of  Life  as  a  remote  Externe,  who  plays  the  human  figures, 
to  bring  about  this  or  that  issue,  instead  of  being  beside  us, 
within  us,  our  breath,  if  we  will ;  marking  on  us  where  at 
each  step  we  sink  to  the  animal,  mount  to  the  divine,  we 
and  ours  who  follow,  oifspring  of  body  or  mind.  She  was 
in  her  error,  from  judgeing  of  the  destiny  of  man  by  the  fate 
of  individuals.  Chiefly  her  error  was,  to  try  to  be  thinking 
at  all  amid  the  fevered  tangle  of  her  sensations. 

A  darkness  fell  upon  the  troubled  woman,  and  was  thicker 
overhead  when  her  warm  blood  had  drawn  her  to  some  ac- 
ceptance of  the  philosophy  of  existence,  in  a  savour  of 
gratification  at  the  prospect  of  her  equal  footing  with  the 
world  while  yet  she  lived.  She  hated  herself  for  taking 
pleasure  in  anything  to  be  bestowed  by  a  world  so  hap- 
hazard, ill-balanced,  unjust ;  she  took  it  bitterly,  with  such 
naturalness  as  not  to  be  aware  that  it  was  irony  and  a 
poisonous  irony  moving  her  to  welcome  the  restorative 
ceremony  because  her  largeness  of  person  had  a  greater  than 
common  need  of  the  protection. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CHIEFLY  UPON   THE   THEME   OF   A   YOUNG   MAID'S   IMAGININGS. 

That  Mausoleum  at  Dreux  may  touch  to  lift  us.  History 
pleads  for  the  pride  of  the  great  discrowned  Family  giving 
her  illumination  there.  The  pride  is  reverently  postured; 
the  princely  mourning-cloak  it  wears  becomingly  braided 
at  the  hem  with  fair  designs  of  our  mortal  humility  in  the 
presence  of  the  vanquisher ;  against  whom,  acknowledgeing 


144  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

• 
a  visible  conqur-st  of  the  dust,  it  sustains  a  placid  contention 
in  coloured  glass  and  marbles. 

Mademoiselle  de  Seilles,  a  fervid  Orleanist,  was  thanked 
for  having  advised  the  curvature  of  the  route  homeward  to 
visit  "  the  spot  of  so  impressive  a  monument : "  as  it  was 
phrased  by  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby ;  whose  exposition 
to  Nesta  of  the  beautiful  stained-glass  pictures  of  incidents 
in  the  life  of  the  crusading  St.  Louis,  was  toned  to  be  like- 
wise impressive: — Colney  Durance  not  being  at  hand  to 
bewail  the  pathos  of  his  exhaustless  "whacking  of  the 
platitudes  ;  "  which  still  retain  their  tender  parts,  but  cry 
unheard  when  there  is  no  cynic  near.  Mr.  Barmby  laid-ori 
solemnly. 

Professional  devoutness  is  deemed  more  righteous  on  such 
occasions  than  poetic  fire.  It  robes  us  in  the  cloak  of  the 
place,  as  at  a  funeral.  Generally,  Mr.  Barmby  found,  and 
justly,  that  it  is  in  superior  estimation  among  his  countrymen 
of  all  classes.  They  are  shown  by  example  how  to  look, 
think,  speak  ;  what  to  do.  Poets  are  disturbing ;  they  cannot 
be  comfortably  imitated,  they  are  unsafe,  not  certainly  the 
metal,  unless  you  have  Laureates,  entitled  to  speak  by  their 
pay  and  decorations ;  and  these  are  but  one  at  a  time,  a 
dweller  in  books,  good  for  quoteing  at  best — and  a  quotation 
may  remind  us  of  a  parody,  to  convulse  the  sacred  dome! 
Established  plain  prose  officials  do  better  for  our  English. 
The  audience  moved  round  with  heads  of  undertakers. 

Victor  called  to  recollection  Fenellan's  "  Rev.  Glendo- 
veer"  while  Mr.  Barmby  pursued  his  discourse,  uninter- 
rupted by  tripping  wags.  And  those  who  have  schemes,  as 
well  as  those  who  are  startled  by  the  criticism  in  laughter 
to  discover,  that  they  have  cause  for  shunning  it,  rejoice 
when  wits  are  absent.  Mr.  Sowerbyand  Nesta  interchanged 
a  comment  on  Mr.  Barmby's  remarks :  The  Fate  of  Princes  ! 
The  Paths  of  Glory!  St.  Louis  was  a  very  distant  Roman 
Catholic  monarch  ;  and  the  young  gentleman  of  Evangelical 
education  could  admire  him  as  a  Crusader.  St.  Louis  was 
for  Nesta  a  figure  in  the  rich  hues  of  royal  Saintship  softened 
to  homeliness  by  tears.  She  doated  on  a  royalty  crowned 
with  the  Saint's  halo,  that  swam  down  to  us  to  lift  us 
through  holy  human  showers.  She  listened  to  Mr.  Barmby, 
hearing  few  sentences,  lending  his  eloquence  all  she  felt: 
he  rolled  forth  notes  of  a  minstei  organ,  accordant  with  the 


A  young  maid's  imaginings.  145 

devotional  service  she  was  holding  mutely.  Mademoiselle 
upon  St.  Louis:  "Worthy  to  be  named  King  of  Kings!" 
swept  her -to  a  fount  of  thoughts,  where  the  thoughts  are 
not  yet  shaped,  are  yet  in  the  breast  of  the  mother  emotions. 
Louise  de  Seilles  had  prepared  her  to  be  strangely  and 
deeply  moved.  The  girl  had  a  heart  of  man}''  strings,  of 
high  pitch,  open  to  be  musical  to  simplest  wandering  airs 
or  to  the  gales.  This  crypt  of  the  recumbent  sculptured 
figures  and  the  coloured  series  of  acts  in  the  passage  of  the 
crowned  Saint  thrilled  her  as  with  sight  of  flame  on  an 
altar-piece  of  History.  But  this  King  in  the  lines  of  the 
Crucifixion  leading,  gave  her  a  lesson  of  life,  not  a  message 
from  death.  With  such  a  King,  there  would  be  union  of 
the  old  order  and  the  new,  cessation  to  political  turmoil : 
Radicalism,  Socialism,  all  the  monster  names  of  things  with 
heads  agape  in  these  our  days  to  gobble-up  the  venerable, 
obliterate  the  beautiful,  leave  a  stoniness  of  floods  where 
field  and  garden  were,  would  be  appeased,  transfigured. 
She  hoped,  she  prayed  for  that  glorious  leader's  advent. 

On  one  subject,  conceived  by  her  only  of  late,  and  not 
intelligibly,  not  communicably :  a  subject  thickly  veiled ; 
one  which  struck  at  her  through  her  sex  and  must,  she 
thought,  ever  be  unnamed  (the  ardent  young  creature  saw 
it  as  a  very  thing  torn  by  the  winds  to  show  hideous  gleams 
of  a  body  raging  with  fire  behind  the  veil) :  on  this  one 
subject,  her  hopes  and  prayers  were  dumb  in  her  bosom.  It 
signified  shame.  She  knew  not  the  how,  for  she  had  no 
power  to  contemplate  it :  there  was  a  torment  of  earth  and  a 
writhing  of  lurid  dust-clouds  about  it  at  a  glimpse.  But  if 
the  new  crusading  Hero  were  to  come  attacking  that — if  some 
born  prince  nobly  man  would  head  the  world  to  take  away 
the  withering  scarlet  from  the  face  of  women,  she  felt  she- 
could  kiss  the  print  of  his  feet  upon  the  ground.  Mean- 
while she  had  enjoyment  of  her  plunge  into  the  inmost 
forest- well  of  mediaeval  imaginativeness,  where  youthfii 
miii^s  of  good  aspiration  through  their  obscurities  find  much 
aki).  to  them. 

She  had  an  eye  for  little  Skepsey  too  :  unaware  that  these 
French  Princes  had  hurried  him  off  to  Agincourt,  for 
another  encounter  with  them  and  the  old  result — poor  dear 
gentlemen,  with  whom  we  do  so  wish  to  be  friendly !  What 
amused  her  was,  his  evident  fatigue  in  undergoing  the  slow 

Ii 


146  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

parade,  and  sheer  deference  to  his  betters,  as  to  the  signifi- 
cation of  a  holiday  on  arrested  legs.  Dudley  Sower  hy's 
attention  to  him,  in  elucidating  the  scenes  with  historical 
scraps,  greatly  pleased  her.  The  Eev.  Septimus  of  course 
occupied  her  chiefly. 

Mademoiselle  was  always   near,  to   receive  his   repeated 
expressions  of  gratitude  tor  the  route  she  had  counselled. 
Without  personal  objections  to  a  well-meaning  orderly  man, 
whose  pardonable  error  it  was  to  be  aiming  too  considerably 
higher  than   his  head,  she   did  but  show  him    the  voluble 
muteness  of  a  Frenchwoman's  closed  lips;    not  a  smile  at 
all,  and    certainly  no   sign    of  hostility;    when  bowing  to 
his  reiterated  compliment  in  the  sentence  of  French.     Mr. 
Barm  by  had  noticed  (and  a  strong  sentiment  rendered  him 
observant,  unwontedly)  a  similar  alert  immobility  of  her  lips, 
indicating  foreign  notions  of  this  kind  or  that,  in  England  : 
an  all  but  imperceptible  shortening  or  loss  of  comers  at  the 
mouth,  upon  mention  of  marriages  of  his  clergy :  particularly 
once,  at  his  reading  of  a  lengthy  report  in  a  newspaper  of 
a  Wedding  Ceremony  involving   his   favourite   Bishop  for 
bridegroom :  a  report  to  make  one  glow  like  Hymen  rollick- 
ing  the   Torch  after   draining   the   bumper   to   the   flying 
slipper.      He  remembered  the  look,  and  how  it  seemed  to 
intensify  on  the  slumbering  features,  at  a  statement,  that  his 
Bishop  was  a  widower,  entering  into  nuptials  in  his  fifty- 
fourth  year.     Why  not  ?     But  we  ask  it  of  Heaven  and  Man, 
why  not  ?      Mademoiselle  was  pleasant :  she  was  young  or 
youngish  ;  her  own  clergy  were  celibates,  and — no,  he  could 
not  argue  the  matter  with  a  young  or  youngish  person  of 
her  sex.     Could  it  be  a  reasonable  woman — a  woman  ! — who 
disapproved  the  holy  nuptials  of  the  pastors  of  the  flocks  ? 
But  we  are  forbidden  to  imagine  the  conducting  of  an  argu- 
ment thereon  with  a  lady : — Luther  .  .  .  but  we  are  not  in 
Luther's  time : — Nature  ...  no,  nor  can  there  possibly  be 
allusions  to  Nature.     Mr.  Barmby  wondered  at  Protestant 
parents  taking  a  Papistical  governess  for  their  young  flower 
of  English  womanhood.     However,  she  venerated  St.  Louis  ; 
he  cordially  also;  there  they  met;    and  he  admitted,  that 
she  had,  for  a  Frenchwoman,  a  handsome  face,  and  besides 
an  agreeably  artificial  ingenuousness  in  the  looks  which  could 
be  so  politely  dubious  as  to  appear  only  dubiously  adverse. 
The  spell  upon  Nesta  was  not  blown  away  on  English 


A  YOUNG    MAID'S   IMAGININGS.  147 

ground ;  and  when  her  father  and  mother  were  comparing 
their  impressions,  she  could  not  but  keep  guard  over  the 
deeper  among  her  own.  At  the  Chateau  de  Gisors,  leftward 
off  Vernon  on  Seine,  it  had  been  one  of  romance  and  wonder- 
ment, with  inquisitive  historic  soundings  of  her  knowledge 
and  mademoiselle's,  a  reverence  for  the  prisoner's  patient 
holy  work,  and  picturings  of  his  watchful  waiting  daily, 
Nail  in  hand,  for  the  heaven-sent  sunlight  on  the  circular 
dungeon- wall  through  the  slits  of  the  meurtrieres.  But  the 
Mausoleum  at  Dreux  spake  religiously;  it  enfolded  Mr. 
Barmby,  his  voice  re-edified  it.  The  fact  that  he  had  dis- 
coursed there,  though  not  a  word  of  the  discourse  was  re- 
membered, allied  him  to  the  spirit  of  a  day  rather  increasing 
in  sacredness  as  it  receded  and  left  her  less  the  possessor  of 
it,  more  the  worshipper. 

Mademoiselle  had  to  say  to  herself:  "  Impossible  !  "  after 
seeing  the  drift  of  her  dear  Nesta's  eyes  in  the  wake  of  the 
colossal  English  clergyman.  She  fed  her  incredulousness 
indignantly  on  the  evidence  confounding  it.  Nataly  was 
aware  of  unusual  intonations,  treble-stressed,  in  the  Bethesda 
and  the  Galilee  of  Mr.  Barmby  on  Concert  evenings  :  as  it 
were,  the  towering  wood- work  of  the  cathedral  organ  in 
quake  under  emission  of  its  multitudinous  outroar.  The 
*'  Which?"  of  the  Rev.  Septimus,  addressed  to  Nesta,  when 
song  was  demanded  of  him;  and  her  "Either;"  and  his 
gentle  hesitation,  upon  a  gaze  at  her  for  the  directing  choice, 
could  not  be  unnoticed  by  women. 

Did  he  know  a  certain  thing? — and  dream  of  urging  the 
suit,  as  an  indulgent  skipper  of  parental  pages  ? — 

Such  haunting  interrogations  were  the  conspirator's 
daggers  out  at  any  instant,  or  leaping  in  sheath,  against 
Nataly's  peace  of  mind.  But  she  trusted  her  girl's  laughing 
side  to  rectify  any  little  sentimental  overbalancing.  She 
left  the  ground  where  maternal  meditations  are  serious,  at 
an  image  of  Mr.  Barmby  knocking  at  Nesta's  heart  as  a 
lover.     Was  it  worth  inquiry  ? 

A  feminine  look  was  trailed  across  the  eyes  of  made- 
moiselle, with  mention  of  Mr.  Barmby's  name. 

Mademoiselle  rippled  her  shoulders.  "  We  are  at  present 
much  enamoured  of  Bethesda." 

That  watehfullest  showing  no  alarm,  the  absurdity  of  the 
suspicion  smothered  it. 


148  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Nataly  had  moreover  to  receive  startling  new  guests: 
Lady  Rodwell  Blachington :  Mrs.  Fanning,  wife  of  the 
General :  young  Mrs.  Blathenoy,  wife  of  the  great  bill- 
broker :  ladies  of  Wrensham  and  about.  And  it  was  a 
tasking  of  her  energies  equal  to  the  buffetting  of  recurrent 
waves  on  deep  sea.  The  ladies  w'ere  eager  for  her  entry  into 
Lakelands.  She  heard  that  Victor  had  appointed  Lady 
Blachington's  third  son  to  the  coveted  post  of  clerk  in  the 
Indian  house  of  Inchling  and  Radnor.  These  are  the  deluge 
days  when  even  aristocracy  will  cry  blessings  on  the  man 
who  procures  a  commercial  appointment  for  one  of  its 
younger  sons  offended  and  rebutted  by  the  barrier  of  Ex- 
aminations for  the  Civil  Service.  "  To  have  our  Adolphus 
under  Mr.  Victor  Radnor's  protection,  is  a  step!"  Lady 
Blachington  said.  Nataly  was  in  an  atmosphere  of  hints 
and  revealings.  There  were  City  Dinners,  to  which  one  or 
other  of  the  residents  about  Lakelands  had  been  taken  before 
he  !*at  at  Victor's  London  table.  He  was  already  winning 
his  way,  apparently  without  effort,  to  be  the  popular  man 
of  that  neighbourhood.  A  subterranean  tide  or  a  slipping 
of  earth  itself  seemed  bearing  her  on.  She  had  his  promise 
indeed,  that  he  would  not  ask  of  her  to  enter  Lakelands 
until  the  day  of  his  freedom  had  risen ;  but  though  she 
could  trust  to  his  word,  the  heart  of  the  word  went  out  of  it 
when  she  heard  herself  thanked  by  Lady  Blachington  (who 
could  so  well  excuse  her  at  such  a  time  of  occupation  for 
not  returning  her  call,  that  she  called  in  a  friendly  way 
a  second  time,  warmly  to  thauk  her)  for  throwing  open  the 
Concert  room  at  Lakelands  in  August,  to  an  Entertainment 
in  assistance  of  the  funds  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  an 
East  of  London  Clubhouse,  where  the  children  of  the  poor 
by  day  could  play,  and  their  parents  pass  a  disengaged 
evening.  Doubtless  a  worthy  Charity.  Nataly  was  alive 
to  the  duties  of  wealth.  Had  it  been  simply  a  demand  for 
a  donation,  she  would  not  have  shown  that  momentary 
pucker  of  the  brows,  which  Lady  Blachington  read  as  a 
contrast  with  the  generous  vivacity  of  the  husband. 

Nataly  read  a  leaf  of  her  fate  in  this  announcement.  Nay, 
she  beheld  herself  as  the  outer  world  vexedly  beholds  a 
creature  swung  along  to  the  doing  of  things  against  the 
better  mind.  &n  outer  world  is  thoughtless  of  situations 
which  prepare   us  to  meet   the  objectionable   with   a    will 


A   YOUNG   MAID'S   IMAGININGS.      .  149 

benumbed  ; — if  we  do  not,  as  does  that  outer  world,  belong 
to  the  party  of  the  readily  heroical.  She  scourged  her 
weakness:  and  the  intimation  of  the  truth  stood  over  her, 
more  than  ever  manifest,  that  the  deficiency  affecting  her 
character  lay  in  her  want  of  language.  A  tongue  to  speak 
and  contend,  would  have  helped  her  to  carve  a  clearer  way. 
But  then  again,  the  tongue  to  speak  must  be  one  which 
could  reproach,  and  strike  at  errors ;  fence,  and  continually 
summon  resources  to  engage  the  electrical  vitality  of  a  man 
like  Victor.  It  was  an  exultation  of  their  life  together,  a 
mark  of  its  holiness  for  them  both,  that  they  had  never 
breathed  a  reproach  upon  one  another.  She  dropped  away 
from  ideas  of  remonstrance  ;  faintly  seeing,  in  her  sigh  of 
submission,  that  the  deficiency  affecting  her  character  would 
have  heen  supplied  by  a  greater  force  of  character,  pressing 
either  to  speech  or  acts.  The  confession  of  a  fated  inevitable 
in  the  mind,  is  weakness  prostrate.  She  knew  it :  but  she 
could  point  to  the  manner  of  man  she  was  matched  with ; 
and  it  was  not  a  poor  excuse. 

Mr.  Barmby,  she  thought,  deserved  her  gratitude  in  some 
degree  for  stepping  between  Mr.  Sowerby  and  Nesta.  The 
girl  not  having  inclinations,  and  the  young  gentleman  being 
devoid  of  stratagem,  they  were  easily  kept  from  the  dangerous 
count  of  two. 

Mademoiselle  would  have  said,  that  the  shepherd  also  had 
rarely  if  ever  a  minute  quite  alone  with  her  lamb.  Incredu- 
lously she  perceived  signs  of  a  shock.  The  secret  following 
the  signs  was  betrayed  by  Nesta  in  return  for  a  tender  grasp 
of  hands  and  a  droll  flutter  of  eyelids.  Out  it  came,  on  a 
nod  first;  then  a  dreary  mention  of  a  date,  and  an  incident, 
to  bring  it  nearer  to  comprehension.  Mr.  Barmby — and 
decide  who  will  whether  it  is  that  Love  was  made  to  elude 
or  that  curates  impelled  by  his  fires  are  subtle  as  eether — 
had  outwitted  French  watchfulness  by  stealing  minutes 
enough  on  a  day  at  Lakelands  to  declare  himself.  And  no 
wonder  the  girl  looked  so  forlorn  :  he  had  shivered  her 
mediaeval  forest  palace  of  illuminated  glass,  to  leave  her 
standing  like  a  mountain  hind,  that  sniffs  the  tainted  gale  off 
the  crag  of  her  first  quick  leap  from  hounds;  her  instincts 
alarmed,  instead  of  rich  imagination  colouring  and  fostering. 

She  had  no  memory  for  his  words  ;  so,  and  truly,  she  told 
her  Louise  :  meaning  that  she  had  only  a  spiceless  memory; 


150         .    ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

especially  for  the  word  love  in  her  ears  from  the  mouth  of 
a  man. 

There  had  been  a  dream  of  it;  with  the  life-awakening 
marvel  it  would  be,  the  humbleness  it  would  bring  to  her 
soul  beneath  the  golden  clothing  of  her  body:  one  of  those 
faint  formless  dreams,  which  are  as  the  bend  of  grasses  to 
the  breath  of  a  still  twilight.  She  lived  too  spiritedly  to 
hang  on  any  dream  ;  and  had  moreover  a  muffled  dread — 
shadow-sister  to  the  virginal  desire— of  this  one,  as  of  a 
fateful  power  that  might  drag  her  down,  disorder,  discolour. 
But  now  she  had  heard  it :  the  word,  the  very  word  itself ! 
in  her  own  ears !  addressed  to  her  !  in  a  man's  voice  !  The 
first  utterance  had  been  heard,  and  it  was  over ;  the  chapter 
of  the  book  of  bulky  promise  of  the  splendours  and  mysteries  ; 
— the  shimmering  woods  and  bushy  glades,  and  the  descent 
of  the  shape  celestial,  and  the  recognition — the  mutual  cry 
of  affinity  ;  and  overhead  the  crimson  outrolling  of  the  flag  of 
beneficent  enterprises  hand  in  hand,  all  was  at  an.  end. 
These,  then,  are  the  deceptions  our  elders  tell  of!  That 
masculine  voice  should  herald  a  new  world  to  the  maiden. 
The  voice  she  had  heard  did  but  rock  to  ruin  the  world  she 
had  been  living  in. 

Mademoiselle  prudently  forbore  from  satirical  remarks  on 
his  person  or  on  his  conduct.  Nesta  had  nothing  to  defend  : 
she  walked  in  a  bald  waste. 

"Can  I  have  been  guilty  of  leading  him  to  think?  .  .  ." 
she  said,  in  a  tone  that  writhed,  at  a  second  discussion  of 
this  hapless  affair. 

"  They  choose  to  think,"  mademoiselle  replied.  "  It  is  he 
or  another.  My  dear  and  dearest,  you  have  entered  the  field 
where  shots  fly  thick,  as  they  do  to  soldiers  in  battle;  and 
it  is  neither  your  fault  nor  any  one's,  if  you  are  hit." 

Nesta  gazed  at  her,  with  a  shy  supplicating  cry  of 
"  Louise." 

Mademoiselle  immediately  answered  the  tone  of  entreaty. 
"  Has  it  happened  to  me  ?  I  am  of  the  age  of  eight  and 
twenty;  passable,  to  look  at:  yes,  my  dear,  I  have  gone 
through  it.  To  spare  you  the  questions  tormenting  you, 
I  will  tell  you,  that  perhaps  our  experience  of  our  feelings 
comes  nigh  on  a  kind  of  resemblance.  The  first  gentleman 
who  did  me  the  honour  to  inform  me  of  his  passion,  was  a 
hunchback." 


A  YOUNG   MAID  S   IMAGININGS.  151 

Nesta  cried  "  Oh  ! "  in  a  veritable  pang  of  sympathy,  and 
clapped  hands  to  her  ears,  to  shut  out  Mr.  Barmby's  boom  of 
the  terrific  word  attacking  Louise  from  that  deformed  one. 

Her  disillusionment  became  of  the  sort  which  hears 
derision.  A  girl  of  quick  blood  and  active  though  unre- 
gulated intellect,  she  caught  at  the  comic  of  young  women's 
hopes  and  experiences,  in  her  fear  of  it. 

"  My  own  precious  poor  dear  Louise !  what  injustice  there 
is  in  the  world  for  one  like  my  Louise  to  have  a  hunchback 
to  be  the  first !  .  .  ." 

'*  But,  my  dear,  it  did  me  no  harm." 

"  But  if  it  had  been  known  !  " 

"  But  it  was  known  !  " 

Nesta  controlled  a  shuddering  :  "  It  is  the  knowledge  of  it 
in  ourselves — that  it  has  ever  happened  ; — you  dear  Louise, 
who  deserve  so  much  better !  And  one  asks — Oh,  why  are 
we  not  left  in  peace  !  And  do  look  at  the  objects  it  makes 
of  us!  "  Mademoiselle  could  see,  that  the  girl's  desperation 
had  got  hold  of  her  humour  for  a  life-buoy.  "  It  is  really 
worse  to  have  it  unknown — when  you  are  compelled  to  be 
his  partner  in  sharing  the  secret,  and  feel  as  if  it  were  a 
dreadful  doll  you  conceal  for  fear  that  everybody  will  laugh 
at  its  face." 

She  resumed  her  seriousness  :  "  I  find  it  so  hard  to  be 
vexed  with  him  and  really  really  like  him.  For  he  is  a 
good  man;  but  he  will  not  let  one  shake  him  off.  He  dis- 
tresses :  because  we  can't  quite  meet  as  we  did.  Last 
Wednesday  Concert  evening,  he  kept  away ;  and  I  am 
annoyed  that  I  was  glad." 

"  Moths  have  to  pass  through  showers,  and  keep  their  pretty  j 
patterns  from  damage  as  best  they  can,"  said  mademoiselle.  / 

Nesta  transformed  herself  into  a  disciple  of  Philosophy 
on  the  spot.  "  Yes,  all  these  feelings  of  ours  are  moth-du^t ! 
One  feels  them.  I  suppose  they  pass.  They  must.  But 
tell  me,  Louise,  dear  soul,  was  your  poor  dear  good  little 
afflicted  suitor — was  he  kindly  pitied?" 

"  Conformably  with  the  regulations  prescribed  to  young 
damsels  who  are  in  request  to  surrender  the  custody  of  their 
hands.  It  is  easy  to  commit  a  dangerous  excess  in  the  dis- 
pensing of  that  article  they  call  pity  of  them." 

"And  he — did  he? — vowed  to  you  he  could  not  taks  No 
for  an  answer  ?  " 


152  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

At  this  ingenuous  question,  woefully  tittered,  mademoiselle 
was  pricked  to  smile  pointedly.  Nesta  had  a  tooth  on  her 
under-lip.  Then,  shaking  vapours  to  the  winds,  she  said : 
"  It  is  an  honour,  to  be  asked ;  and  we  cannot  be  expected 
to  consent.  So  I  shall  wear  through  it. — Only  I  do  wish 
that  Mr.  Fenellan  would  not  call  him  The  lnchcape  Bell !  " 
She  murmured  this  to  herself. 

Mr.  Barmby  was  absent  for  two  weeks.  "  Can  anything 
have  offended  him  ?  "  Victor  inquired,  in  some  consternation, 
appreciating  the  man's  worth,  and  the  grand  basso  he  was  ; 
together  with  the  need  fur  him  at  the  Lakelands  Concert 
in  August. 

Nataly  wrote  Mr.  Barmby  a  direct  invitation.  She  had 
no  reply.  Her  speculations  were  cut  short  by  Victor,  who 
handed  her  a  brief  note  addressed  to  him  and  signed  by  the 
Rev.  Septimus,  petitioning  for  a  private  interview. 

The  formality  of  the  request  incensed  Victor.  "Now, 
dear  love,  you  see  Colney's  meaning,  when  he  says,  there  are 
people  who  have  no  intimacy  in  them.  Here's  a  man  who  visits 
me  regularly  once  a  week  or  more,  has  been  familiar  for 
years — four,  at  least;  and  he  wants  to  speak  to  me,  and 
must  obtain  the  '  privilege  '  by  special  appointment !  What 
can  be  the  meaning  of  it?" 

"  You  will  hear  to-morrow  afternoon,"  Nataly  said,  seeing 
one  paved  way  to  the  meaning — a  too  likely  meaning. 

"  He  hasn't  been  .  .  .  nothing  about  Eredi,  surely  !  * 

"  I  have  had  no  information." 

"Impossible!  Barmby  has  good  sense;  Bottesini  can't 
intend  to  come  scraping  on  that  string.  But  we  won't  lose 
him ;  he's  one  of  us.  Barmby  counts  for  more  at  a  Charity 
Concert  than  all  the  catalogue,  and  particularly  in  the 
country.     But  he's  an  excellent  fellow — eh?  " 

"  That  he  is,"  Nataly  agreed. 

Victor  despatched  a  cheerful  curt  consent  to  see  Mr. 
Barmby  privately  on  the  late  afternoon  of  the  day  to  follow. 

Nesta,  returning  home  from  the  park  at  that  hour  of  the 
interview,  ignorant  of  Mr.  Barmby's  purpose  though  she 
was,  had  her  fires  extinguished  by  the  rolling  roar  of  curfew 
along  the  hall-passage,  out  of  the  library.    ; 


(    153    ) 
CHAPTER  XVIII. 

SUITORS   FOR   THE   HAND   OF   NESTA   VICTORIA. 

When,  upon  the  well-known  quest,  the  delightful  singer 
Orpheus  took  that  downward  way,  coming  in  sight  of  old 
Cerberus  centiceps,  he  astutely  feigned  inattention  to  the 
hostile  appearances  of  the  multiple  beast,  and  with  a  wave  of 
his  plectrum  over  the  responsive  lyre,  he  at  the  stroke  raised 
voice.  This  much  you  know.  It  may  be  communicated  to 
you,  that  there  was  then  beheld  the  most  singular  spectacle 
ever  exhibited  on  the  dizzy  line  of  division  between  the 
living  and  the  dead.  For  those  unaccustomed  musical  tones 
in  the  last  thin  whiff  of  our  sustaining  air  were  so  smartingly 
persuasive  as  to  pierce  to  the  vitals  of  the  faithful  Old  Dog 
before  his  offended  sentiments  had  leisure  to  rouse  their 
heads  against  a  beggar  of  a  mortal.  The  terrible  sugariness 
which  poured  into  him  worked  like  venom  to  cause  an 
encounter  and  a  wrestling:  his  battery  of  jaws  expressed  it. 
They  gaped.  At  the  same  time,  his  eyeballs  gave  up.  All 
the  Dog,  that  would  have  barked  the  breathing  intruder  an 
hundredfold  back  to  earth,  was  one  compulsoty  centurion 
yawn.  Tears,  issue  of  the  frightful  internal  wedding  of  the 
dulcet  and  the  sour  (a  ravishing  rather  of  the  latter  by  the 
former),  rolled  off  his  muzzles. 

Now,  if  you  are  not  for  insisting  that  a  magnificent  simile 
shall  be  composed  of  exactly  the  like  notes  in  another  octave, 
you  will  catch  the  fine  flavour  of  analogy  and  be  wafted  in 
a  beat  of  wings  across  the  scene  of  the  application  of  the 
Rev.  Septimus  Barmby  to  Mr.  Victor  Radnor,  that  he  might 
enter  the  house  in  the  guise  of  suitor  for  the  hand  of  Nesta 
Victoria.  It  is  the  excelling  merit  of  similes  and  metaphors 
to  spring  us  to  vault  over  gaps  and  thickets  and  dreary 
places.  But,  as  with  the  visits  of  Immortals,  we  must  be 
ready  to  receive  them.  Beware,  moreover,  of  examining 
them  too  scrupulously  :  they  have  a  trick  of  wearing  to 
vapour  if  closely  scanned.     Let  it  be  gratefully  for  their  aid. 

So  far  the  comparison  is  absolute,  that  Mr.  Barmby  passed : 
he  was  at  liberty  to  pursue  his  quest. 

Victor   could  not  explain   how  he  had   been   brought   t<? 


154  ONE    OF   OUB   CONQUERORS. 

grant  it.  He  was  at  pains  to  conceal  the  bewilderment  Mr. 
Barmby  had  cast  on  him,  and  make  Nataly  see  the  smallness 
of  the  grant : — both  of  them  were  unwilling  to  lose  Barmby  ; 
there  was  not  the  slightest  fear  about  Fredi,  he  said ;  and 
why  should  not  poor  Barmby  have  his  chance  with  the 
others  in  the  race  ! — and  his  Nataly  knew  that  he  hated  to 
speak  unkindly:  be  could  cry  the  negative  like  a  crack  of 
thunder  in  the  City.  But  such  matters  as  these !  and  a 
man  pleading  merely  for  the  right  to  see  the  girl ! — and 
pleading  in  a  tone  .  .  .  '*  I  assure  you,  my  love,  he  touched 
chords." 

"  Did  he  allude  to  advantages  in  the  alliance  with  him?" 
Nataly  asked  smoothly. 

"  His  passion — nothing  else.  Candid  enough.  And  he 
had  a  tone — he  has  a  tone,  you  know.  It's  not  what  he 
said.  Some  allusion  to  belief  in  a  favourable  opinion  of 
him  .  .  .  encouragement  ...  on  the  part  of  the  mama. 
She  would  have  him  travelling  with  us  !     I  foresaw  it." 

"  You  were  astonished  when  it  came." 

"  We  always  are." 

Victor  taunted  her  softly  with  having  encouraged  Mr. 
Barmby. 

She  had  thought  in  her  heart — not  seriously ;  on  a  sigh 
of  despondency — that  Mr.  Barmby  espousing  the  girl  would 
smoothe  a  troubled  prospect :  and  a  present  resentment  at 
her  weakness  rendered  her  shrewd  to  detect  Victor's  cunning 
to  cover  his  own  :  a  thing  imaginable  of  him  previously  in 
sentimental  matters,  yet  never  acurately  and  so  legibly 
printed  on  her  mind.  It  did  not  draw  her  to  read  him  with 
a  novel  familiarity;  it  drew  her  to  be  more  sensible  of  fore- 
gone intimations  of  the  man  he  was — irresistible  in  attack, 
not  impregnably  defensive.  Nor  did  he  seem  in  this  instance 
humanely  considerate :  if  mademoiselle's  estimate  of  the 
mind  of  the  girl  was  not  wrong,  then  Mr.  Barmby's  position 
would  be  both  a  ridiculous  and  a  cruel  one.  She  had  some 
silly  final  idea  that  the  poor  man  might  now  serve  perma- 
nently to  check  the  more  dreaded  applicant :  a  proof  that 
her  ordinary  reflectiveness  was  blunted. 

Nataly  acknowledged,  after  rallying  Victor  for  coming 
to  have  his  weakness  condoned,  a  justice  in  his  counter- 
accusation,  of  a  loss  of  her  natural  cheerfulness,  and  promised 
amendment,   with  a   steely   smile,  that  his  lips  mimicked 


SUITORS   FOR   THE    HAND    OF   NESTA   VICTORIA.         155 

fondly;  and  her  smile  softened.  To  strengthen  the  dear 
soul's  hopes,  he  spoke,  as  one  who  had  received  the  latest 
information,  of  Dr.  Themison  and  surgeons  ; — little  conscious 
of  the  tragic  depths  he  struck  or  of  the  burden  he  gave  her 
heart  to  bear.  Her  look  alarmed  him.  She  seemed  to  be 
hugging  herself  up  to  the  tingling  scalp,  and  was  in  a 
moment  marble  to  sight  and  touch.  She  looked  like  the 
old  engravings  of  martyrs  taking  the  bite  of  the  jaws  of 
flame  at  the  stake. 

He  held  her  embraced,  feeling  her  body  as  if  it  were  in 
the  awful  grip  of  fingers  from  the  outside  of  life. 

The  seizure  was  over  before  it  could  be  called  ominous. 
When  it  was  once  over,  and  she  had  smiled  again  and 
rebuked  him  for  excessive  anxiety,  his  apprehensions  no 
longer  troubled  him,  but  subsided  sensationally  in  wrath  at 
the  crippled  woman  who  would  not  obey  the  dictate  of 
her  ailments  instantly  to  perish  and  spare  this  dear  one 
annoyance. 

Subsequently,  later  than  usual,  he  performed  his  usual 
mental  penance  for  it.  In  consequence,  the  wrath,  and  the 
wish,  and  the  penitence,  haunted  him,  each  swelling  to 
possession  of  him  in  turn ;  until  they  united  to  head  a 
plunge  into  retrospects;  which  led  to  his  reviewing  the 
army  of  charges,  against  Mrs.  Burman. 

And  of  this  he  grew  ashamed,  attributing  it  to  the  morbid 
indulgence  in  reflection :  a  disease  never  afflicting  him 
anterior  to  the  stupid  fall  on  London  Bridge.  He  rubbed 
instinctively  for  the  punctilio-bump,  and  could  cheat  his 
fancy  to  think  a  remainder  of  it  there,  just  below,  half  an 
inch  to  the  right  of,  the  spot  where  a  phrenologist,  invited 
by  Nataly  in  old  days,  had  marked  philo-progenitiveness  on 
his  capacious  and  enviable  cerebrum.  He  knew  well  it  was 
a  fancy.  But  it  was  a  fact  also,  that  since  the  day  of  the 
fall  (never,  save  in  merest  glimpses,  before  that  day),  he 
had  taken,  to  look  behind  him,  as  though  an  eye  had  been 
knocked  in  the  back  of  his  head. 

Then,  was  that  day  of  the  announcement  of  Lakelands  to 
Nataly,  to  be  accounted  a  gloomy  day  ?  He  would  not  have 
it  so. 

She  was  happily  occupied  with  her  purchases  of  furniture, 
Fredi  with  her  singing  lessons,  and  he  with  his  business ;  a 
grasp  of  many  ribands,  reining-in  or  letting  loose ;  always 


156  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

enjoyable  in  the  act.  Recently  only  had  he  known  when  at 
home,  a  relaxation,  a  positive  pleasure  in  looking  forward  to 
the  hours  of  the  City  office.  This  was  odd,  but  so  it  was ; 
and  looking  homeward  from  the  City,  he  had  a  sense  of 
disappointment  when  it  was  not  Concert  evening.  The 
Cormyns,  the  Yatts,  and  Priscilla  Graves,  and  Pempton, 
foolish  fellow,  and  that  bothering  Barm  by,  and  Peridon  and 
Catkin,  were  the  lineing  of  his  nest.  Well,  and  so  they  had 
been  before  Lakelands  rose.  What  had  induced!  ...  he 
suddenly  felt  foreign  to  himself.  The  shrouded  figure  of 
his  lost  Idea  on  London  Bridge  went  by. 

A  peep  into  the  folds  of  the  shroud  was  granted  him : — Is 
it  a  truth,  that  if  we  are  great  owners  of  money,  we  are  so 
sw.oln  with  a  force  not  native  to  us,  as  to  be  precipitated 
into  acts  the  downright  contrary  of  our  tastes? 

He  inquired  it  of  his  tastes,  which  have  the  bad  habit  of 
unmeasured  phrasing  when  they  are  displeased,  and  so  they 
yield  no  rational  answer.  Still  he  gave  heed  to  violent 
extraneous  harpings  against  money.  Epigrams  of  Colney's; 
abuse  of  it  and  the  owners  of  it  by  Socialist  orators  reported 
in  some  newspaper  corner ;  had  him  by  the  ears. 

They  ceased  in  the  presence  of  Lady  Grace  Halley,  who 
entered  his  office  to  tell  him  she  was  leaving  town  for 
Whinfold,  her  husband's  family-seat,  where  the  dear  man 
lay  in  evil  case.  She  signified  her  resignation  to  the  decrees 
from  above,  saying  generously : 

"  You  look  troubled,  my  friend.     Any  bad  City  news?" 

"  I  look  troubled  ? "  Yictor  said  laughing,  and  bethought 
him  of  what  the  trouble  might  be.  "  City  news  would  not 
cause  the  look.  Ah,  yes ; — I  was  talking  in  the  street  to  a 
friend  of  mine  on  horseback  the  other  day,  and  he  kept 
noticing  his  horse's  queer  starts.  We  spied  half  a  dozen 
children  in  the  gutter,  at  the  tail  of  the  horse,  one  of  them 
plucking  at  a  hair.  *  Please,  sir,  may  I  have  a  hair  out  of 
your  horse's  tail  ?'  said  the  mite.  We  patted  the  poor  horse 
that  grew  a  tail  for  urchins  to  pluck  at.  Men  come  to  the 
fathers  about  their  girls.  It's  my  belief  that  mothers  more 
easily  Bay  no.  If  they  learn  the  word  as  maids,  you'll  say! 
However,  there's  no  fear  about  my  girl.  Fredi's  hard  to 
snare.     And  what  brings  you  Cityward  ?  " 

"  I  want  to  know  whether  I  shall  do  right  in  selling  out 
of  the  Tiddler  mine." 


SUITORS  FOR  THE  HAND  OF  NESTA  VICTORIA.    157 

14  You  have  multiplied  your  investment  by  ten." 

"  If  it  had  been  thousands  !  " 

"  Clearly,  you  sell ;  always  jump  out  of  a  mounted  mine, 
unless  you're  at  the  bottom  of  it." 

"  There  are  City-articles  against  the  mine  this  morning — 
or  I  should  have  been  on  my  way  to  Whinfold  at  this 
moment.     The  shares  are  lower." 

"The  merry  b>ys  are  at  wort  to  bring  your  balloon  to 
the  ground,  that  you  may  quit  it  for  them  to  ascend. 
Tiddler  has  enemies,  like  the  best  of  mines :  or  they  may  be 
named  lovers,  if  you  like.  And  mines  that  have  gone  up, 
go  down  for  a  while  before  they  rise  again ;  it's  an  affair  of 
undulations;  rocket  mines  are  not  so  healthy.  The  stories 
are  false,  for  the  time.  I  had  the  latest  from  Dartrey 
Fenellan  yesterday.  He's  here  next  month,  some  time  in 
August." 

"  He  is  married,  is  he  not  ?  n/ 

"  Was." 

Victor's  brevity  sounded  oddly  to  Lady  Grace. 

"Is  he  not  a  soldier?"  she  said. 

"  Soldiers  and  parsons !  "  Victor  interjected. 

Now  she  saw.  She  understood  the  portent  of  Mr. 
Barmby's  hovering  offer  of  the  choice  of  songs,  and  the 
recent  tremulousness  of  the  welling  Bethesda. 

But  she  had  come  about  her  own  business;  and  after 
remarking,  that  when  there  is  a  prize  there  must  be  com- 
petition, or  England  will  have  to  lower  her  flag,  she  declared 
her  resolve  to  stick  to  Tiddler,  exclaiming :  "  It's  only  in 
mines  that  twenty  times  the  stake  is  not  a  dream  of  the  past !  " 

"  The  Eiviera  green  field  on  the  rock  is  always  open  to 
you,"  said  Yictor. 

She  put  out  her  hand  to  be  taken.  "  Not  if  you  back  me 
here.  It  really  is  not  gambling  when  yours  is  the  counsel 
I  follow.  And  if  I'm  to  be  a  widow,  I  shall  have  to  lean  on 
a  friend,  gifted  like  you.  I  love  adventure,  danger; — well, 
if  we  two  are  in  it ;  just  to  see  my  captain  in  a  storm.  And 
if  the  worst  happens,  we  go  down  together.  It's  the 
detestation  of  our  deadly  humdrum  of  modern  life;  some 
inherited  love  of  fighting." 

"  Say,  brandy." 

"  Does  not  Mr.  Durance  accuse  you  of  an  addiction  to  th8 
brandy  novel?" 


158  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  Coin ey  may  call  it  what  he  pleases.  If  I  read  fiction, 
let  it  be  fiction ;  airier  than  hard  fact.  If  I  see  a  ballet,  my 
troop  of  short  skirts  must  not  go  stepping  like  pavement 
policemen.  I  can't  read  dull  analytical  stuff  or  'stylists' 
when  I  want  action — if  I'm  to  give  my  mind  to  a  story.  I 
can  supply  the  reflections.  I'm  English — if  Colney's  right 
in  saying  we  always  come  round  to  the  story  with  the  streak 
of  supernaturalism.  I  don't  ask  for  bloodshed :  that's  what 
his  'brandy'  means." 

"But  Mr.  Durance  is  right,  we  require  a  shedding;  I 
confess  I  expect  it  where  there's  love ;  it's  part  of  the 
balance,  and  justifies  one's  excitement.  How  otherwise  do 
you  get  any  real  crisis?  I  must  read  and  live  something 
unlike  this  flat  life  around  us." 

"  There's  the  Adam  life  and  the  Macadam  life,  Fenellan 
says.  Pass  it  in  books,  but  in  life  we  can  have  quite  enough 
excitement  coming  out  of  our  thoughts.  No  brandy  there ! 
And  no  fine  name  for  personal  predilections  or  things  done 
in  domino !  "  Victor  said,  with  his  very  pleasant  face,  pressing 
her  hand,  to  keep  the  act  of  long  holding  it  in  countenance 
and  bring  it  to  a  well-punctuated  conclusion  :  thinking 
involuntarily  of  the  other  fair  woman,  whose  hand  was  his, 
and  who  betrayed  a  beaten  visage  despite — or  with  that 
poor  kind  of — trust  in  her  captain.  But  the  thought  was 
not  guilty  of  drawing  comparisons.  *'  This  is  one  that  I 
could  trust,  as  captain  or  mate,"  he  pressed  the  hand  again 
before  dropping  it. 

"  You  judge  entirely  by  the  surface  if  you  take  me  for  a 
shifty  person  at  the  trial,"  said  Lady  Grace. 

Skepsey  entered  the  room  with  one  of  his  packets,  and  she 
was  reminded  of  trains  and  husbands. 

She  left  Victor  uncomfortably  ruffled :  and  how  ?  for  she 
had  none  of  the  physical  charms  appealing  peculiarly  to  the 
man  who  was  taken  with  grandeur  of  shape.  She  belonged 
rather  to  the  description  physically  distasteful  to  him. 

It  is  a  critical  comment  on  a  civilization  carelessly  distilled 
from  the  jealous  East,  when  visits  of  fair  women  to  City 
offices  can  have  this  effect.  If  the  sexes  are  separated  for  an 
hour,  the  place  where  one  is  excluded  or  not  common  to  see, 
becomes  inflammable  to  that  appearing  spark.  He  does  out- 
rage to  a  bona  Bea :  she  to  the  monasticism  of  the  Court  of 
Law :  and  he  and  she  awaken  unhallowed  emotions.     Sup- 


SUITORS   FOR   THE    HAND   OF   NESTA   VICTORIA.  159 

posing,  however,  that  western  men  were  to  de-orientalize 
their  gleeful  notions  of  her,  and  dis-Turk  themselves  by 
inviting  the  woman's  voluble  tongue  to  sisterly  occupation 
there  in  the  midst  of  the  pleading  Court,  as  in  the  domestic 
circle:  very  soon  would  her  eyes  be  harmless: — unless 
directed  upon  us  with  intent. 

That  is  the  burning  core  of  the  great  Question,  our 
Armageddon  in  Morality :  Is  she  moral  ?  Does  she  mean  to 
be  harmless?  Is  she  not  untamable  Old  Nature?  And 
when  once  on  an  equal  footing  with  her  lordly  half,  would 
not  the  spangled  beauty,  in  a  turn,  like  the  realistic  trans- 
formation-trick of  a  pantomime,  show  herself  to  be  that 
wanton  old  thing — the  empress  of  disorderliness  ?  You 
have  to  recollect,  as  the  Conservative  acutely  suggests,  that 
her  timidities,  at  present  urging  her  to  support  Establish- 
ments, pertain  to  her  state  of  dependence.  The  party  views 
of  Conservatism  are,  must  be,  founded,  we  should  remember, 
on  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  her  in  the  situations  where 
she  is  almost  unrestrictedly  free  and  her  laughter  rings  to 
confirm  the  sentences  of  classical  authors  and  Eastern  sages. 
Conservatives  know  what  they  are  about  when  they  refuse 
to  fling  the  last  lattice  of  an  ancient  harem  open  to  air  and 
sun — the  brutal  dispersers  of  mystery,  which  would  despoil 
an  ankle  of  its  flying  wink. 

Victor's  opinions  were  those  of  the  entrenched  majority; 
objecting  to  the  occult  power  of  women,  as  we  have  the 
women  now,  while  legislating  to  maintain  them  so;  and 
forbidding  a  step  to  a  desperately  wicked  female  world  lest 
the  step  should  be  to  wickeder.  His  opinions  were  in  the 
background,  rarely  stirred ;  but  the  lady  had  brought  them 
forward ;  and  he  fretted  at  his  restlessness,  vexed  that  it 
should  be  due  to  the  intrusion  of  the  sex  instead  of  to  the 
charms  of  the  individual.  No  sting  of  the  sort  had  bothered 
him,  he  called  to  mind,  on  board  the  Channel  boat — nothing 
to  speak  of.  *'  Why  does  she  come  here !  Why  didn't  she 
go  to  her  husband  !  She  gets  into  the  City  scramble  blind- 
fold, and  catches  at  the  nearest  hand  to  help  her  out !  Nice 
woman  enough."  Yes,  but  he  was  annoyed  with  her  for 
springing  sensations  that  ran  altogether  heartless  to  the 
object,  at  the  same  time  that  they  were  disloyal  to  the  dear 
woman  their  natural  divinity.  And  between  him  and  that 
dear  woman,  since  the  communication  made  by  Skepsey  in 


160  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

the  town  of  Dreux,  nightly  the  dividing  spirit  of  Mrs. 
Burman  lav :  cold  as  a  corpse.  They  both,  felt  her  there. 
They  kissed  coldly,  pressed  a  hand,  said  goud  night. 

Next  afternoon  the  announcement  by  Skepsey  of  the 
Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby,  surprised  Victor's  eyebrows  at  least, 
and  caused  him  genially  to  review  the  visit  of  Lady 
Grace. 

Whether  or  not  Colney  Durance  drew  his  description  of 
a  sunken  nobility  from  the  "sick  falcon"  distinguishing  the 
handsome  features  of  Mr.  Sowerby,  that  beaked  invalid  was 
particularly  noticeable  to  Victor  during  the  statement  of 
his  case,  although  the  young  gentleman  was  far  from  being 
one,  in  Colney's  words,  to  enliven  the  condition  of  domestic 
fowl  with  an  hereditary  turn  for  "  preying  ;  "  eminently  the 
reverse ;  he  was  of  good  moral  repute,  a  worker,  a  commend- 
able citizen.  But  there  was  the  obligation  upon  him  to 
speak — it  is  expected  in  such  cases,  if  only  as  a  formality — 
of  his  "  love :  hard  to  do  even  in  view  and  near  to  the 
damsel's  reddening  cheeks :  it  perplexed  him.  He  dropped 
a  veil  on  the  bashful  topic ;  his  tone  was  the  same  as  when 
he  reverted  to  the  material  points ;  his  present  income,  his 
position  in  the  great  Bank  of  Shotts  &  Co.,  his  prospects,  the 
health  of  the  heir  to  the  Cantor  earldom.  He  considered 
that  he  spoke  to  a  member  of  the  City  merchants,  whose 
preference  for  the  plain  positive,  upon  the  question  of  an 
alliance  between  families  by  marriage,  lends  them  for  once 
a  resemblance  to  lords.  When  a  person  is  not  read  by 
character,  the  position  or  profession  is  called  on  to  supply 
raised  print  for  the  finger-ends  to  spell. 

Hard  on  poor  Fredi !  was  Victor's  thought  behind  the 
smile  he  bent  on  this  bald  Cupid.  She  deserved  a  more 
poetical  lover !  His  paternal  sympathies  for  the  girl  be- 
sought in  love,  revived  his  past  feelings  as  a  wooer;  nothing 
but  a  dread  of  the  influence  of  Mr.  Barmby's  toned  eloquence 
upon  the  girl,  after  her  listening  to  Dudley  Sowerby's 
addresses,  checked  his  contempt  for  the  latter.  He  could 
not  despise  the  suitor  he  sided  with  against  another  and 
seemingly  now  a  more  dangerous.  Unable  quite  to  repress 
the  sentiment,  he  proceeded  immediately  to  put  it  to  his 
uses.  For  we  have  no  need  to  be  scrupulously  formal  and 
precise  in  the  exposition  of  circumstances  to  a  fellow  who 
may  thank  the  stars  if  such  a  girl  condescends  to  give  him 


SUITORS  FOR   THE   HAND   OF  NESTA  VICTORIA.  161 

n  hearing.  He  had  this  idea  through  the  conception  of  his 
girl's  generosity.  And  furthermore,  the  cognizant  eye  of  a 
Lucretian  -Alma  Mater  having  seat  so  strongly  in  Victor, 
demanded  as  a  right  an  effusion  of  the  promising  amorous 
graces  on  the  part  of  the  acceptable  applicant  to  the  post  of 
husband  of  that  peerless.  These  being  absent,  evidently 
non-existent,  it  seemed  sufficient  for  the  present,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  young  gentleman,  to  capitulate  the  lew 
material  matters  briefly. 

They  were  dotted  along  with  a  fine  disregard  of  the  state 
liness  of  the  sum  to  be  settled  on  Nesta  Victoria,  and  with 
a  distant  but  burning  wish  all  the  while,  that  the  suitor  had 
been  one  to  touch  his  heart  and  open  it,  inspiriting  it — as 
could  have  been  done — to  disclose  for  good  and  all  the  things 
utterable.  Victor  loved  clear  honesty,  as  he  loved  light : 
and  though  he  hated  to  be  accused  of  not  showing  a  clean 
face  in  the  light,  he  would  have  been  moved  and  lifted 
to  confess  to  a  spot  by  the  touch  at  his  heart.  Dudley 
Sowerby's  deficiencies,  however,  were  outweighed  by  the 
palpable  advantages  of  his  birth,  his  prospects,  and  his  good 
repute  for  conduct;  add  thereto  his  gentlemanly  manners. 
Victor  sighed  again  over  his  poor  Fredi ;  and  in  telling 
Mr.  Sowerby  that  the  choice  must  be  left  to  her,  he  had  the 
regrets  of  a  man  aware  of  his  persuasive  arts  and  how  they 
would  be  used,  to  think  that  he  was  actually  making  the 
choice. 

Observe  how  fate  fully  he  who  has  a  scheme  is  the  engine 
of  it ;  he  is  no  longer  the  man  of  his  tastes  or  of  his  prin- 
ciples ;  he  is  on  a  line  of  rails  for  a  terminus ;  and  he  may 
cast  languishing  eyes  across  waysides  to  right  and  left,  he 
has  doomed  himself  to  proceed,  with  a  self-devouring  hunger 
for  the  half  desired ;  probably  manhood  gone  at  the  embrace 
of  it.  This  may  be  or  not,  but  Nature  has  decreed  to  him 
the  forfeit  of  pleasure.  She  bids  us  count  the  passage  of 
a  sober  day  for  the  service  of  the  morrow;  that  is  her 
system  ;  and  she  would  have  us  adopt  it,  to  keep  in  us  the 
keen  edge  for  cutting,  which  is  the  guarantee  of  enjoyment : 
doing  otherwise,  we  lose  ourselves  in  one  or  other  of  the 
furious  matrix  instincts ;  we  are  blunt  to  all  else. 

Young  Dudley  fully  agreed  that  the  choice  must  be  with 
Miss  Ka«lnor;  he  alluded  to  her  virtues,  her  accomplish- 
ments.    He  was  waxing  to  fervidness.      He  said  he  must 

u 


162  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

expect  competitors ;  adding,  on  a  start,  that  he  was  to  say, 
from  his  mother,  she,  in  the  case  of  an  intention  to  present 
Miss  Eadnor  at  Court.  .  .  . 

Victor  waved  hand  for  a  finish,  looking  as  though  his 
head  had  come  out  of  hot  water.  He  sacrificed  Jtoyalty  to 
his  necessities,  under  a  kind  of  sneer  at  its  functions : 
"  Court !  my  girl  ?  But  the  arduous  duties  are  over  for 
the  season.  We  are  a  democratic  people  retaining  the 
seductions  of  monarchy,  as  a  friend  says ;  and  of  course  a 
girl  may  like  to  count  among  the  flowers  of  the  kingdom 
for  a  day,  in  the  list  of  Court  presentations ;  no  harm.  Only 
there's  plenty  of  time  .  .  .  very  young  girls  have  their 
heads  turned — though  I  don't  say,  don't  imagine,  my  girl 
would.     By  and  by  perhaps." 

Dudley  was  ushered  into  Mr.  Inchling's  room  and  introduced 
to  the  figure-head  of  the  Firm  of  Inehling,  Pennergate,  and 
Eadnor  :  a  respectable  City  merchant  indeed,  whom  Dudley 
could  read- off  in  a  glimpse  of  the  downright  contrast  to  his 
partner.  He  had  heard  casual  remarks  on  the  respectable 
City  of  London  merchant  from  Colney  Durance.  A  short 
analytical  gaze  at  him,  helped  to  an  estimate  of  the  powers 
of  the  man  who  kept  him  up.  Mr.  Inehling  was  a  florid 
City-feaster,  descendant  of  a  line  of  City  merchants,  having 
features  for  a  wife  to  identify ;  as  drovers,  they  tell  us,  can 
single  one  from  another  of  their  round-bellied  beasts.  For- 
merly the  leader  of  the  Firm,  he  was  now,  after  dreary  fits 
of  restiveness,  kickings,  false  prophecies  of  ruin,  Victor's 
obedient  cart-horse.  He  sighed  in' set  terms  for  the  old  days 
of  the  Firm,  when,  like  trouts  in  the  current,  the  Firm  had 
only  to  gape  for  shoals  of  good  things  to  fatten  it :  a  tale  of 
English  prosperity  in  quiescence ;  narrated  interjectorily 
among  the  by-ways  of  the  City,  and  wanting  only  metre 
to  make  it  our  national  Poem.  Mr.  Inehling  did  not  deny 
that  grand  mangers  of  golden  oats  were  still  somehow 
constantly  allotted  to  him.  His  wife  believed  in  Victor, 
and  deemed  the  loss  of  the  balanceingg. Pennergate  a  gain. 
Since  that  lamentable  loss,  Mr.  Inehling,  under  the  irony 
of  circumstances  the  Tory  of  Commerce,  had  trotted  and 
gallopped  whither  driven,  racing  like  mad  against  his  will 
and  the  rival  nations  now  in  the  field  to  force  the  pace  ;  a 
name  for  enterprise  ;  the  close  commercial  connection  of  a 
man  who  speculated — who,  to  put  it  plainly,  lived  on  his 


SUITORS   FOR   THE    HAND   OF   NESTA   VICTORIA.  163 

wits ;  hurried  onward  and  onward  ;  alwa3*s  doubting,  munch- 
ing, grumbling  at  satisfaction,  in  perplexity  of  the  gratitude 
which  is  apprehensive  of  black  Nemesis  at  a  turn  of  the  road, 
to  confound  so  wild  a  whip  as  Victor  Eadnor.  He  had  never 
forgiven  the  youth's  venture  in  India  of  an  enormous 
purchase  of  Cotton  many  years  back,  and  which  he  had 
repudiated,  though  not  his  share  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
realized  before  the  refusal  to  ratify  the  bargain  had  come 
to  Victor.  Mr.  Inchling  dated  his  first  indigestion  from  that 
disquieting  period.  He  assented  to  the  praise  of  Victor's 
genius,  admitting  benefits  ;  his  heart  refused  to  pardon,  and 
consequently  his  head  wholly  to  trust,  the  man  who  robbed 
him  of  his  quondam  comfortable  feeling  of  security.  And 
if  you  will  imagine  the  sprite  of  the  aggregate  English  Tax- 
payer personifying  Steam  as  the  malignant  who  has  despoiled 
him  of  the  blessed  Safety- Assurance  he  once  had  from  his 
God  Neptune  against  invaders,  you  will  comprehend  the 
state  of  Mr.  Inchling's  mind  in  regard  to  his  terrific  and 
bountiful,  but  very  disturbing  partner.  He  thanked  heaven 
to  his  wife  often,  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  North 
American  or  South  American  mines  and  pastures  or  with 
South  Africa  and  gold  and  diamonds :  and  a  wife  must 
sometimes  listen,  mastering  her  inward  comparisons.  Dr. 
Schlesien  had  met  and  meditated  on  this  example  of  the 
island  energy.  Mr.  Inchling  was  not  permitted  by  his  wife 
to  be  much  the  guest  of  the  Eadnor  household,  because  of 
the  frequent  meeting  there  with  Colney  Durance ;  Colney's 
humour  for  satire  being  instantly  in  bristle  at  sight  of  his 
representative  of  English  City  merchants :  "  over  whom," 
as  he  wrote  of  the  venerable  body,  "the  disciplined  and 
instructed  Germans  not  deviously  march ;  whom  acute  and 
adventurous  Americans,  with 'half  a  cock  of  the  eye  in 
passing,  compassionately  outstrip."  He  and  Dr.  Schlesien 
agreed  upon  Mr.  Inchling.  Meantime  the  latter  gentleman 
did  his  part  at  the  tables  of  the  wealthier  City  Companies, 
and  retained  his  appearance  of  health ;  he  was  beginning 
to  think,  upon  a  calculation  of  the  increased  treasures  of 
those  Companies  and  the  country,  that  we,  the  Taxpayer, 
ought  not  to  leave  it  altogether  to  Providence  to  defend 
them ;  notwithstanding  the  watchful  care  of  us  hitherto 
shown  by  our  briny  Providence,  to  save  us  from  anxiety 
and  expense.     But  there  are,  he  said,  "difficulties;"   and 


164  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

the  very  word  could  stop  him,  as  commonly  when  oar 
difficulty  lies  in  $ne  exercise  of  thinking. 

Victor's  African  room,  containing  Jarge  wall-maps  of 
auriferous  regions,  was  inspected  ;  and  another,  where  clerks 
were  busy  over  miscellaneous  Continents.  Dudley  Sowerby 
hoped  he  might  win  the  maiden. 

He  and  Victor  walked  in  company  Westward.  The  shop 
of  Boyle  and  Luck  wort,  chemists,  was  not  passed  on  this 
occasion.  Dudley  grieved  that  he  had  to  be  absent  from 
the  next  Concert  for  practise,  owing  to  his  engagement  to 
his  mother  to  go  down  to  the  family  seat  near  Tunbridge 
Wells.  Victor  mentioned  his  relatives,  the  Duvidney  maiden 
ladies,  residing  near  the  Wells.  They  measured  the  distance 
between  Cronidge  and  Moorsedge,  the  two  houses,  as  for 
half  an  hour  on  horseback. 

Nesta  told  her  father  at  home  that  the  pair  of  them  had 
been  observed  confidentially  arm  in  arm,  and  conversing  so 
profoundly. 

"  Who,  do  you  think,  was  the  topic  ?  "  Victor  asked. 

She  would  not  chase  the  little  blue  butterfly  of  a  guess. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

TUEATS  OF  NATURE  AND  CIRCUMSTANCE  AND  THE  DISSENSION 
BETWEEN  THEM  AND  OF  A  SATIRIST'S  MALIGNITY  IN  THK 
DIRECTION    OF    HIS    COUNTRY. 

There  is  at  times  in  the  hearts  of  all  men  of  active  life  a 
vivid  wild  moment  or  two  of  dramatic  dialogue  between  the 
veteran  antagonists,  Nature  and  Circumstance,  when  they, 
whose  business  it  should  be  to  be  joyfully  one,  furiously 
split;  and  the  Dame  is  up  with  her  shrillest  querulousness 
to  inquire  of  her  offspring,  for  the  distinct  original  motive 
of  his  conduct.  Why  did  he  bring  her  to  such  a  pass  !  And 
what  is  the  gain  ?  If  he  be  not  an  alienated  issue  of  the* 
great  Mother,  he  will  strongly  incline  to  her  view,  that 
he  put  himself  into  harness  to  join  with  a  machine  going 
the  dead  contrary  way  of  her  welfare;  and  thereby  wrote 
himself  donkey,  for  his  present  reading.     Soldiers,  heroes, 


OF   NATURE   AND   CIRCUMSTANCE.  165 

even  the  braided,  even  the  wearers  of  the  gay  cock's 
feathers,  who  get  the  honours  and  the  pocket-pieces,  know 
the  moment  of  her  electrical  eloquence.  They  have  no 
answer  for  her,  save  an  index  at  the  machine  pushing  them 
on  vet  farther  under  the  enemy's  line  of  fire,  where  they 
pluck  the  golden  wreath  or  the  livid,  and  in  either  case 
listen  no  more.  They  glorify  her  topping  wisdom  while  on 
the  march  to  confound  it.  She  is  wise  in  her  way.  But  it 
is  asked  by  the  disputant,  If  we  had  followed  her  exclusively, 
how  far  should  we  have  travelled  from  our  starting-point? 
We. of  the  world  and  its  prizes-},  and  duties  must  do  her  an 
injury  to  make  her  tongue  musical  to  us,  and  her  argument 
worthy  of  attention.  So  it  seems.  How  to  keep  the  proper 
balance  between  those  two  testy  old  wranglers,  that  rarely 
pull  the  right  way  together,  is  as  much  the  task  for  men 
in  the  grip  of  the  world,  as  for  the  wanton  youthful  fry 
under  dominion  of  their  instincts  ;  and  probably,  when  it  is 
done,  man  will  have  attained  the  golden  age  of  his  retire- 
ment from  service. 

Why  be  scheming?  Victor  asked.  Unlike  the  gallant 
soldiery,  his  question  was  raised  in  the  blush  of  a  success, 
from  an  examination  of  the  quality  of  the  thing  won; 
although  it  had  not  changed  since  it  was  first  coveted ;  it 
was  demonstrably  the  same:  and  an  astonishing  dry  stick 
he  held,  as  a  reward  for  perpetual  agitations  and  perversions 
of  his  natural  tastes.  Here  was  a  Dudley  Sowerby,  the 
direct  issue  of  the  conception  of  Lakelands ;  if  indeed  they 
were  not  conceived  together  in  one  ;  and  the  young  gentle- 
man had  moral  character,  good  citizen  substance,  and  station, 
rank,  prospect  of  a  title;  and  the  grasp  of  him  was  firm. 
Yet  so  far  was  it  from  hearty,  that  when  hearing  a  professed 
satirist  like  Colney  Durance  remark  on  the  decorous  manner 
of  Dudley's  transparent  courtship  of  the  girl,  under  his  look 
of  an  awakened  approval  of  himself,  that  he  appeared  to  be 
asking  everybody  : — Do  you  not  think  I  bid  fair  for  an 
excellent  father  of  Philistines  ? — Victor  had  a  nip  of  spite  at 
the  thought  of  Dudley's  dragging  him  bodily  to  be  tha 
grandfather.  Poor  Fredi,  too ! — necessarily  the  mother  : 
condemued  by  her  hard  fate  to  feel  proud  of  Philistine 
babies  !  Though  women  soon  get  reconciled  to  it !  Or  do 
they  ?  They  did  once.  What  if  his  Fredi  turned  out  one 
of   the   modern  young  women,  who  have  drunk  of  ideas? 


166  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

He  caught  himself  speculating  on  that,  as  on  a  danger.  The 
alliance  with  Dudley  really  seemed  to  set  him  lacing  back- 
ward. 

Colney  might  not  have  been  under  prompting  of  Nataly 
when  he  derided  Dudley ;  but  Victor  was  at  war  with  the 
picture  of  her,  in  her  compression  of  a  cruel  laugh,  while 
her  eyelids  were  hard  shut,  as  if  to  exclude  the  young 
patriarch  of  Philistines'  ridiculous  image. 

He  hearkened  to  the  Nature  interrogating  him,  why  had 
he  stepped  on  a  path  to  put  division  between  himself  and 
his  beloved  ? — the  smallest  of  gaps  ;  and  still  the  very 
smallest  between  nuptial  lovers  is  a  division — and  that  may 
become  a  mortal  wound  to  their  one  life.  Why  had  he 
roused  a  slumbering  world  ?  Glimpses  of  the  world's  nurse- 
like, old-fashioned,  mother-nightcap  benevolence  to  its  kick- 
ing favourites  ;  its  long-suffering  tolerance  for  the  heroic 
breakers  of  its  rough  cast  laws,  while  the  decent  curtain 
continues  dropped,  or  lifted  only  ankle-high  ;  together  with 
many  scenes,  lively  suggestions,  of  the  choice  of  ways  he 
liked  best,  told  of  things,  which  were  better  things,  incom- 
prehensibly forfeited.  So  that  the  plain  sense  of  value 
insisted  on  more  than  one  weighing  of  the  gain  in  hand :  a 
dubious  measure. 

He  was  as  little  disposed  to  reject  it  as  to  stop  his  course 
at  a  goal  of  his  aim.  Nevertheless,  a  gain  thus  poorly 
estimated,  could  not  command  him  to  do  a  deed  of  humiliation 
on  account  of  it.  The  speaking  to  this  dry  young  Dudley 
was  not  imperative  at  present.  A  word  would  do  in  the 
day  to  come. 

Nataly  was  busy  with  her  purchases  of  furniture,  and  the 
practise  for  the  great  August  Concert.  He  dealt  her  liberal 
encouragements,  up  to  the  verge  of  Dr.  Themison's  latest 
hummed  words  touching  Mrs.  Burman,  from  which  he  jumped 
in  alarm  lest  he  should  paralyze  her  again  :  the  dear  soul's 
dreaded  aspect  of  an  earthly  pallor  was  a  spectre  behind 
her  cheeks,  ready  to  rush  forth.  Fenellan  brought  Carling 
to  dine  with  him ;  and  Themison  was  confirmed  by  Carling, 
with  incidents  in  proof;  Carling  by  Jarniman,  also  with 
incidents ;  one  very  odd  one — or  so  it  seemed,  in  the  fury 
of  the  first  savour  of  it : — she  informed  Jarniman,  Skepsey 
said  his  friend  Jarniman  said,  that  she  had  dreamed  of 
making  her  appearance   to  him  on  the  night  of  the  23rd 


OF   NATURE   AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  167 

August,  and  of  setting  the  date  on  the  calendar  over  his 
desk,  when  she  entered  his  room :  "  Sitting-room,  not  bed- 
room ;  she  -was  always  quite  the  lady,"  Skepsey  reported 
his  Jarniman.  Mrs.  Burman,  as  a  ghost,  would  respect 
herself;  she  would  keep  to  her  character.  Jarniman  quite 
expected  the  dream  to  be  verified ;  she  was  a  woman  of  her 
word  :  he  believed  she  had  received  a  revelation  of  the  ap- 
proaching fact:  he  was  preparing  for  the  scene. 

Victor  had  to  keep  silent  and  discourse  of  general  pros- 
perity. His  happy  vivaciousness  assisted  him  to  feel  it  by 
day.  Nataly  heard  him  at  night,  on  a  moan  :  "  Poor  suul !  " 
and  loudly  once  while  performing  an  abrupt  demi-vault 
from  back  to  side :  "  Perhaps  now  !  "  in  a  voice  through 
doors.     She  schooled  herself  to  breathe  equably. 

Not  being  allowed  to  impart  the  digressing  dose  of 
comfort  he  was  charged  with,  he  swallowed  it  himself;  and 
these  were  the  consequences.  And  an  uneasy  sleep  was 
traditionally  a  matter  for  grave  debate  in  the  Radnor  family. 
The  Duvidney  ladies,  Dorothea  and  Virginia,  would  have 
cited  ancestral  names,  showing  it  to  be  the  worst  of  intima- 
tions. At  night,  lying  on  his  back  beneath  a  weight  of 
darkness,  one  heavily  craped  figure,  distinguishable  through 
the  gloom,  as  a  blot  on  a  black  pad,  accused  the  answering 
darkness  within  him,  until  his  mind  was  dragged  to  go 
through  the  whole  case  by  morning  light;  and  the  com- 
passionate man  appealed  to  common  sense,  to  stamp  and 
pass  his  delectable  sophistries;  as,  that  it  was  his  intense 
humaneness,  which  exposed  him  to  an  accusation  of  in- 
humanity; his  prayer  for  the  truly  best  to  happen,  which 
anticipated  Mrs.  Burman's  expiry.  They  were  simple 
sophistries,  fabricated  to  suit  his  needs,  readily  taking  and 
bearing  the  imprimatur  of  common  sense.  They  refreshed 
him,  as  a  chemical  scent  a  crowded  room. 

All  because  he  could  not  open  his  breast  to  Nataly,  by 
reason  of  her  feebleness;  or  feel  enthusiasm  in  the  possession 
of  young  Dudley !  A  dry  stick  indeed  beside  him  on  the 
walk  Westward.  Good  quality  wood,  no  doubt,  but  dry, 
varnished  for  conventional  uses.  Poor  dear  Fredi  would 
have  to  crown  it  like  the  May -day  posy  of  the  urchins  of 
Craye  Farm  and  Creckholt ! 

Dudley  wished  the  great  City-merchant  to  appreciate  him 
as  a  diligent  student  of  commercial  matters:    rivalries  of 


168  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Bants ;  Foreign  and  Municipal  Loans,  American  Rails,  and 
Argentine;  new  Companies  of  wholesome  appearance  or 
sinister ;  or  starting  with  a  dram  in  the  stomach,  or  born 
to  bleat  prostrate,  like  sheep  on  their  backs  in  a  ditch ; 
Trusts  and  Founders  ;  Breweries  bursting  vats  upon  the 
markets,  and  England  prone  along  the  gutters,  gobbling, 
drunk  for  shares,  and  sober  in  the  possession  of  certain  of 
ihem.  But  when,  as  Colney  says,  a  grateful  England  has 
conferred  the  Lordship  on  her  Brewer,  he  gratefully  hands- 
over  the  establishment  to  his  country ;  and  both  may  dis- 
regard the  howls  of  a  Salvation  Army  of  shareholders. — ■ 
Beaten  by  the  Germans  in  Brewery,  too !  Dr.  Schlesien  has 
his  right  to  crow.  We  were  ahead  of  them,  and  they  came 
and  studied  us,  and  they  studied  Chemistry  as  well ;  while 
we  went  on  down  our  happy-go-lucky  old  road  ;  and  then 
had  to  hire  their  young  Professors,  and  then  to  import  their 
beer.  Have  the  Germans  more  brains  than  we  English? 
Victor's  blood  up  to  the  dome  of  his  cranium  knocked  the 
}  patriotic  negative.  But,  as  old  Colney  says  (and  bother  him, 
for  constantly  intruding  !),  the  comfortably  successful  have 
the  habit  of  sitting,  and  that  dulls  the  brain  yet  more  than  it 
eases  the  person  :  hence  are  we  outpaced ;  we  have  now  to 
know  we  are  raceing.  Victor  scored  a  mark  for  one  of  his 
projects.  A  well-conducted  Journal  of  the  sharpest  pens  in 
the  land  might,  at  a  sacrifice  of  money  grandly  sunk,  expose 
to  his  English  how  and  to  what  degree  their  sports,  and  their 
fierce  feastings,  and  their  opposition  to  ideas,  and  their 
timidity  in  regard  to  change,  and  their  execration  of  criticism 
applied  to  themselves,  and  their  unanimous  adoption  of  it 
for  a  weapon  against  others,  are  signs  of  a  prolonged  indul- 
gence in  the  cushioned  seat.  Victor  saw  it.  But  would 
the  people  he  loved  ?  He  agreed  with  Colney,  forgetting  the 
satirist's  venom :  to-wit,  that  the  journalists  should  be  close 
under  their  editor's  rod  to  put  it  m  sound  bold  English; — 
no  metaphors,  no  similes,  nor  flowery  insubstantiality  ;  but 
honest  Saxon  manger  stuff :  and  put  it  repeatedly,  in  con- 
tempt of  the  disgu.st  of  iteration  ;  hammering  so  a  soft  place 
on  the  Anglican  skull,  which  is  rubbed  in  consequence,  and 
taught  at  last  through  soreness  to  reflect. — A  Journal? — with 
Colney  Durance  for  Editor? — and  called  conformably  The 
Whipping-Top  ?  Why  not,  if  it  exactly  hits  the  signification 
of  the  Journal  and  that  which  it  would  have  the  country  do 


OF   NATURE   AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  169 

to  itself,  to  keep  it  going  and  truly  topping?  For  there  is 
no  vulgarity  in  a  title  strongly  signifying  the  intent.  Victor 
wrote  it  at 'night,  naming  Colney  for  Editor,  with  a  sum  of 
his  money  to  be  devoted  to  the  publication,  in  a  form  of 
memorandum ;  and  threw  it  among  the  papers  in  his  desk. 

Young  Dudley  had  a  funny  inquisitiveness  about  Dartrey 
Fenellan;  owing  to  Fredi's  reproduction  or  imitation  of  her 
mother's  romantic  sentiment  for  Dartrey,  doubtless  :  a  bit 
of  jealousy,  indicating  that  the  dry  fellow  had  his  feelings. 
Victor  touched-off  an  outline  of  Dartrey's  history  and  cha- 
racter : — the  half-brother  of  Simeon,  considerably  younger, 
and  totally  different.  "Dartrey's  mother  was  Lady  Char- 
lotte Kiltorne,  one  of  the  Clanconans;  better  mother  than 
wife,  perbaps ;  and  no  reproach  on  her,  not  a  shadow  ;  only 
she  made  the  General's  Bank-notes  fly  black  paper.  And — 
if  you're  for  heredity — the  queer  point  is,  that  Simeon,  whose 
mother  was  a  sober-minded  woman,  has  always  been  the 
spendthrift.  Dartrey  married  one  of  the  Hennen  women, 
all  an  odd  lot,  all  handsome.  I  met  her  once.  Colney  said, 
she  came  up  here  with  a  special  commission  from  the  Prince 
of  Darkness.  There  are  women  who  stir  the  unholy  in  men 
— whether  they  mean  it  or  not,  you  know." 

Dudley  pursed  to  remark,  that  he  could  not  say  he  did 
know.  And  good  for  Fredi  if  he  did  not  know,  and  had  his 
objections  to  the  knowledge !  But  he  was  like  the  men  who 
escape  colds  by  wrapping  in  comforters  instead  of  trusting 
to  the  spin  of  the  blood. 

**  She  phiyed  poor  Dartrey  pranks  before  he  buried — he 
behaved  well  to  her  ;  and  that  says  much  for  him  ;  he  has  a 
devil  of  a  temper.  I've  seen  the  blood  in  his  veins  mount  to 
cracking.  But  there's  the  man  :  because  she  was  a  woman, 
he  never  let  it  break  out  with  her.  And,  by  heaven,  he  had 
cause.  She  couldn't  be  left.  She  tricked  him,  and  she 
loved  him — passionately,  I  believe.  You  don't  understand 
women  loving  the  husband  they  drag  through  the  mire?  " 

Dudley  did  not.  He  sharpened  his  mouth  to  the  sour 
mute  negative. 

"  Buried,  you  said,  sir? — a  widower?  " 

"  I've  no  positive  information ;  we  shall  hear  when  he 
comes  back,"  Victor  replied  hurriedly.  "  He  got  a  drenching 
of  all  the  damns  in  the  British  service  from  his  General- 
issimo one  day  at  a  Review,  for  a    trooper's  negligence — 


170  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

button  or  stock  missing,  or  something ;  and  off  goes  Dartrey 
to  his  hut,  and  breaks  his  sword,  and  sends  in  his  resigna- 
tion. Good  soldier  lost.  And  I  can't  complain;  he  has  been 
a  right-hand  man  to  me  over  in  Africa.  But  a  man  ought  to 
have  some  control  of  his  temper,  especially  a  soldier." 

Dudley  put  emphasis  into  his  acquiescence. 

"  Worse  than  that  temper  of  Dartrey's,  he  can't  forgive  an 
injury.  He  bears  a  grudge  against  his  country.  You've 
heard  Colney  Durance  abuse  old  England.  It's  three  parts 
factitious — literary  exercise.  It's  milk  beside  the  contempt 
of  Dartrey's  shrug.  He  thinks  we're  a  dead  people,  if  a 
people  ;  '  subsisting  on  our  fat,'  as  Colney  says." 

"  I  am  not  of  opinion  that  we  show  it,"  observed  Dudley. 

"  We  don't,"  Victor  agreed.  He  disrelished  his  companion's 
mincing  tone  of  a  monumental  security,  and  yearned  for 
Dartrey  or  Simeon  or  Colney  to  be  at  his  elbow  rather  than 
this  most  commendable  of  orderly  citizens,  who  little 
imagined  the  treacherous  revolt  from  him  in  the  bosom 
of  the  gentleman  cordially  signifying  full  agreement.  But 
Dudley  was  not  gifted  to  read  behind  words  and  looks. 

They  were  in  the  Park  of  the  dwindling  press  of  carriages, 
and  here  was  this  young  Dudley  saying,  quite  commend- 
ably  :  "  It's  a  pity  we  seem  to  have  no  means  of  keeping  our 
parks  select." 

Victor  flung  Simeon  Fenellan  at  him  in  thought.  He 
remembered  a  fable  of  Fenellan's,  about  a  Society  of  the 
Blest,  and  the  salt  it  was  to  them  to  discover  an  intruder 
from  below,  and  the  consequent  accelerated  measure  in  their 
hymning. 

"  Have  you  seen  anything  offensive  to  you  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  One  sees  notorious  persons." 

Dudley  spoke  aloof  from  them — "  out  of  his  cold  attics," 
Fenellan  would  have  said. 

Victor  approved  :  with  the  deadened  feeling  common  to 
us  when  first  in  sad  earnest  we  qonsent  to  take  life  as  it  is. 
He  perceived,  too,  the  comicality  of  his  having  to  resign 
himself  to  the  fatherly  embrace  of  goodness. 

Lakelands  had  him  fast,  and  this  young  Dudley  was  the 
kernel  of  Lakelands.  If  he  had  only  been  intellectually  a 
little  flexible  in  his  morality  !  But  no ;  he  wore  it  cap  a  pie, 
like  a  mediaeval  knight  his  armour.  One  had  to  approve. 
And  there  was  no  getting  away  from  him.     He  was  good 


OP   NATURE   AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  171 

enough  to  stay  in  town  for  the  practise  of  the  opening 
overture  of  the  amateurs,  and  the  flute-duet,  when  his 
family  were  looking  for  him  at  Tunbridge  Wells;  and 
almost  every  day  Victor  was  waylaid  by  him  at  a  corner 
of  the  Strand. 

Occasionally,  Victor  appeared  at  the  point  of  interception 
armed  with  Colney  Durance,  for  whom  he  had  called  in  the 
Temple,  bent  on  self-defence,  although  Colney  was  often  as 
bitter  to  his  taste  as  to  Dudley's.  Latterly  the  bitter  had 
become  a  tonic.  We  rejoice  in  the  presence  of  goodness,  let 
us  hope ;  and  still  an  impersonation  of  conventional  good- 
ness perpetually  about  us  depresses.  Dudley  drove  him  to 
Colney  for  relief.  Besides  it  pleased  Nataly,  that  he  should 
be  bringing  Colney  home;  it  looked  to  her  as  if  he  were 
subjecting  Dudley  to  critical  inspection  before  he  decided  a 
certain  question  much,  and  foolishly,  dreaded  by  the  dear 
soul.  That  quieted  her.  And  another  thing,  she  liked  him 
to  be  with  Colney,  for  a  clog  on  him ;  as  it  were,  a  tuning- 
fork  for  the  wild  airs  he  started.  A  little  pessimism,  also, 
she  seemed  to  like ;  probably  as  an  appeasement  after  hear- 
ing, and  having  to  share,  high  flights.  And  she  was,  in  her 
queer  woman's  way,  always  reassured  by  his  endurance  of 
Colney's  company : — she  read  it  to  mean,  that  he  could  bear 
Colney's  perusal  of  him,  and  satiric  stings.  Victor  had  seen 
these  petty  matters  among  the  various  which  were  made  to 
serve  his  double  and  treble  purposes;  now,  thanks  to  the 
operation  of  young  Dudley  within  him,  he  felt  them. 
Preferring  Fenellan's  easy  humour  to  Colney's  acid,  he  was 
nevertheless  braced  by  the  latter's  antidote  to  Dudley,  while 
reserving  his  entire  opposition  in  the  abstract. 

For  Victor  Eadnor  and  Colney  Durance  were  the  Optimist 
and  Pessimist  of  their  society.  They  might  have  headed 
those  tribes  in  the  country.  At  a  period  when  the  omnibus 
of  the  world  appears  to  its  quaint  occupants  to  be  going 
faster,  men  are  shaken  into  the  acceptation,  if  not  perform- 
ance, of  one  part  or  the  other  as  it  is  dictated  to  them  by 
their  temperaments.  Compose  the  parts,  and  you  come  nigh 
to  the  meaning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  :  the  mother  of 
these  gosling  affirmatives  and  negatives  divorced  from  har- 
mony and  awakened  by  the  slight  increase  of  incubating 
motion  to  vitality.  Victor  and  Colney  had  been  champion 
duellists  for   4he  rosy  and  the   saturnine  since  the  former 


172  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

cheerfully  slaved  for  a  small  stipend  in  the  City  of  his 
affection,  and  the  latter  entered  on  an  inheritance  counted 
in  niggard  hundreds,  that  withdrew  a  briefless  barrister 
disposed  for  scholarship  from  the  forlornest  of  seats  in  the 
Courts.  They  had  foretold  of  one  another  each  the  unful- 
filled ;  each  claimed  the  actual  as  the  child  of  his  prediction. 
Victor  was  to  have  been  ruined  long  back ;  Colney  the  prey 
of  independent  bachelors.  Colney  had  escaped  his  harpy, 
and  Victor  could  be  ^called  a  millionnaire  and  more.  Pro- 
phesy was  crowned  by  Colney's  dyspepsia,  by  Victor's 
ticklish  domestic  position.  Their  pity  for  one  another, 
their  warm  regard,  was  genuine;  only,  they  were  of  different 
temperaments;  and  we  have  to  distinguish,  that  in  many 
estimable  and  some  gifted  human  creatures,  it  is  the  quality 
of  the  blood  which  directs  the  current  of  opinion. 

Victor  played-off  Colney  upon  Dudley,  for  his  internal 
satisfaction,  and  to  lull  Nataly  and  make  her  laugh  ;  but  he 
could  not,  as  she  hoped  he  was  doing,  take  Colney  into  his 
confidence;  inasmuch  as  the  Optimist,  impelled  by  his  exu- 
berant anticipatory  trustfulness,  is  an  author,  and  does 
things;  whereas  the  Pessimist  is  your  chaired  critic,  with 
the  delivery  of  a  censor,  generally  an  undoer  of  things. 
Our  Optimy  has  his  instinct  to  tell  him  of  the  cast  of  Pes- 
simy's  countenance  at  the  confession  of  a  dilemma — foreseen  ! 
He  hands  himself  to  Pessimy,  as  it-  were  a  sugar-cane,  for 
the  sour  brute  to  suck  the  sugar  and  whack  with  the  wood. 
— No,  he  cannot  do  it;  he  gets  no  compensation:  Pessimy 
is  invulnerable.  You  waste  your  time  in  hurling  a  common 
tu-quoque  at  one  who  hugs  the  worst. 

The  three  walking  in  the  park,  with  their  bright  view, 
and  black  view,  and  neutral  view  of  life,  were  a  comical 
trio.  They  had  come  upon  the  days  of  the  unfanned  electric 
furnace,  proper  to  London's  early  August  when  it  is  not 
pipeing  March.  Victor  complacently  bore  heat  as  well  as 
cold :  but  young  Dudley  was  a  drought,  and  Colney  a  drug 
to  refresh  it;  and  why  was  he  stewing  in  London  ?  It  was 
for  this  young  Dudley,  who  resembled  a  London  of  the 
sparrowy  roadways  and  wearisome  pavements  and  blocks  of 
fortress  mansions,  by  chance  a  water-cart  spirting  a  stale 
water :  or  a  London  of  the  farewell  dinner-parties,  where 
London's  professed  anecdotist  lays  the  dust  with  his  ten 
times  told.     Why  was  not   Nataly  relieved  of  her   dreary 


OF   NATURE    AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  173 

round  of  the  purchases  of  furniture  !  They  ouo:ht  all  now 
to  be  in  Switzerland  or  Tyrol.  Nesta  had  of  late  been 
turning  over  leaves  of  an  Illustrated  book  of  Tyrol,  dear 
to  her  after  a  run  through  the  Inn  thai  to  the  Dolomites 
one  splendid  August;  and  she  and  Nataly  had  read  there 
of  Hofer,  Speckbacker,  Haspinger;  and  wrath  had  filled 
them  at  the  meanness  of  the  Corsican,  who  posed  after  it 
as  victim  on  St.  Helena's  rock;  the  scene  in  grey  dawn 
on  Mantua's  fortress-walls  blasting  him  in  the  Courts  of 
History,  when  he  strikes  for  his  pathetic  sublime.  Victor 
remembered  how  he  had  been  rhetorical,  as  the  mouthpiece 
of  his  darlings.  But  he  had  in  memory  prominently  now 
the  many  glorious  pictures  of  that  mountain-land  beckoning 
to  him,  waving  him  to  fly  forth  from  the  London  ovenv — lo, 
the  Tyrol ese  limestone  crags  with  livid  peaks  and  snow 
lining  shelves  and  veins  of  the  crevices;  and  folds  of  pine- 
wood  undulations  closed  by  a  shoulder  of  snow  large  on  the 
blue;  and  a  dazzling  pinnacle  rising  over  green  pasture- 
Alps,  the  head  of  it  shooting  aloft  as  the  blown  billow,  high 
off  a  broken  ridge,  and  wide-armed  in  its  pure  white  shroud 
beneath ;  tranced,  but  all  motion  in  immobility,  to  the  heart 
in  the  eye ;  a  splendid  image  of  striving,  up  to  crowned 
victory.  And  see  the  long  valley-sweeps  of  the  hanging 
meadows  and  maize,  and  lower  vineyards  and  central  tall 
green  spires  !  Walking  beside  young  Dudley,  conversing, 
observing  too,  Victor  followed  the  trips  and  twists  of  a  rill, 
that  was  lured  a  little  further  down  through  scoops,  ducts, 
and  scaffolded  channels  to  serve  a  wainwright.  He  heard 
the  mountain-song  of  the  joyful  water  :  a  wren-robin- thrush 
on  the  dance  down  of  a  faun ;  till  it  was  caught  and  muted, 
and  the  silver  foot  slid  along  the  channel,  swift  as  moon- 
beams through  a  cloud,  with  an  air  of  "  Whither  you  will,  so 
it  be  on;"  happy  for  service  as  in  freedom.  Then  the  yard 
of  the  inn  below,  and  the  rill- water  twirling  rounded  through 
the  trout-trough,  subdued,  still  lively  for  its  beloved  onwai  d : 
dues  to  business,  dues  to  pleasure ;  a  wedding  of  the  two, 
and  the  wisest  on  earth  : — eh?  like  some  one  we  know,  and 
Natal y  has  made  the  comparison.  Fresh  forellen  for  lunch : 
rhyming  to  Fenellan,  he  had  said  to  her;  and  that  recollec- 
tion struck  the  day  to  blaze;  for  his  friend  was  a  ruined 
military  captain  living  on  a  literary  quill  at  the  time;  and 
Nataly's  tender  pleading,  "  Could  you  not  help  to  give  him 


174  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

another  chance,  dear  Victor  ?" — signifying  her  ahsolute  trust 
in  his  ability  to  do  that  or  more  or  anything,  had  actually- 
set  him  thinking  of  the  Insurance  Office;  which  he  started  to 
prosperity,  and  Fenellan  in  it,  previously  an  untutored  rill 
of  the  mountains,  if  ever  was  one. 

Useless  to  be  dwelling  on  holiday  pictures  :  Lakelands  had 
hold  of  him ! 

Colney  or  somebody  says,  that  the  greater  ow.  successes, 
the  greater  the  slaves  we  become, — But  we  must  have  an 
aim,  my  friend,  arid  success  must  be  the  aim  of  any  aim  ! — 
Yes,  and,  says  Colney,  you  are  to  rejoice  in  the  disappoint- 
ing miss,  which  saves  you  from  being  damned  by  your  bullet 
on  the  centre. — You're  dead  against  Nature,  old  Colney. — 
Thatis  to  carry  the  flag  of  Liberty. — By  clipping  a  limb ! 

Victor  overcame  the  Pessimist  in  his  own  royal  cranium- 
Court.  He  entertained  a  pronounced  dissension  with  bachelors 
pretending  to  independence.  It  could  not  be  argued  publicly, 
and  the  more  the  pity  : — for  a  slight  encouragement,  he 
would  have  done  it ;  his  outlook  over  the  waves  of  bachelors 
and  (by  present  conditions  mostly  constrained)  spinsters — and 
another  outlook,  midnight  upon  Phlegethon  to  the  thoughts 
of  men,  made  him  deem  it  urgent.  And  it  helped  the  plea 
in  his  own  excuse,  as  Colney  pointed  out  to  the  son  of  Nature. 
That,  he  had  to  admit,  was  true.  He  charged  it  upon  Mrs. 
Buiman,  for  twisting  the  most  unselfish  and  noblest  of  his 
thoughts  ;  and  he  promised  himself  it  was  to  cease  on  the 
instant  when  the  circumstance,  which  Nature  was  remiss  in 
not  bringing  about  to-day  or  to-morrow,  had  come  to  pass. 
He  could  see  his  Nataly's  pained  endurance  beneath  her 
habitual  submission.  Her  effort  was  a  poor  one,  to  conceal 
her  dread  of  the  day  of  the  gathering  at  Lakelands. 

On  the  Sunday  previous  to  the  day.  Dr.  Themison  accom- 
panied the  amateurs  by  rail  to  Wrensham,  to  hear  ••  trial  of 
the  acoustics  "  of  the  Concert-hall.  They  were  a  goodly 
company ;  and  there  was  fun  in  the  railway -carriage  over 
Colnev's  description  of  Fashionable  London's  vast  octopus 
Malady-nionster,  who  was  letting  the  doctor  fly  to  the  tether 
of  its  longest  filament  for  an  hour,  plying  suckers  on  him 
the  while.  He  had  the  look,  to  general  perception,  of  a  man 
but  half-escaped :  and  as  when  the  notes  of  things  taken  by 
the  vision  in  front  are  being  set  down  upon  tablets  in  the 
head  behind.    Victor  observed  his  look  at  Nataly.     The  look 


OP   NATUKE    AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  175 

was  like  a  door  aswing,  revealing  in  concealing.  She  was 
not  or  did  not  appear  struck  by  it :  perhaps,  if  observant,  she 
took  it  for 'a  busy  professional  gentleman's  holiday  reckoning 
of  the  hours  before  the  return  train  to  his  harness,  and  his 
arrangements  for  catching  it.  She  was,  as  she  could  be  on 
a  day  of  trial,  her  enchanting  majestic  self  again — defying 
suspicions  She  was  his  true  mate  for  breasting  a  world 
honoured  in  uplifting  her. 

Her  singing  of  a  duet  with  Nesta,  called  forth  Dr.  Themi- 
son's  very  warm  applause.  He  named  the  greatest  of  contraltos. 
Colney  did  better  service  than  Fenellan  at  the  luncheon- 
table  :  he  diverted  Nataly  and  captured  Dr.  Themison's  ear 
with  the  narative  of  his  momentous  expedition  of  European 
Emissaries,  to  plead  the  cause  of  their  several  languages  at 
the  Court  of  Japan  :  a  Satiric  Serial  tale,  that  hit  incidentally 
the  follies  of  the  countries  of  Europe,  and  intentionally,  one 
had  to  think,  those  of  Old  England.  Nesta  set  him  going. 
Just  when  he  was  about  to  begin,  she  made  her  father  laugh 
by  crying  out  in  a  rapture,  "  Oh  !  Delphica !  "  For  she  was 
naughtily  aware  of  Dudley  Sowerby's  distaste  for  the  story 
and  disgust  with  the  damsel  Delphica. 

Nesta  gave  Dr.  Themison  the  preliminary  sketch  of  the 
grand  object  of  the  expedition  :  indeed  one  of  the  eminent 
ones  of  the  world;  matter  for  an  Epic;  though  it  is  to  be 
feaied,  that  our  part  in  it  will  not  encourage  a  Cis-Atlantic 
bard.    To  America  the  honours  from  beginning  to  end  belong. 

So,  then,  Japan  has  decided  to  renounce  its  language,  for 
the  adoption  of  the  language  it  may  choose  among  the  fore- 
most famous  European  tongues.  Japan  becomes  the  word 
fur  miraculous  transformations  of  a  whole  people  at  the 
stroke  of  a  wand ;  and  let  our  English  enrol  it  as  the  most 
precious  of  the  powerful  verbs.  An  envoy  visits  the  principal 
Seats  of  Learning  in  Europe.  He  is  of  a  gravity  to  match 
that  of  his  unexampled  and  all  but  stupefying  mission.  A 
fluent  linguist,  yet  an  Englishman,  the  slight  American 
accent  contracted  during  a  lengthened  residence  in  the  United 
States  is  no  bar  to  the  patiiotism  urging  him  to  pay  his 
visit  of  exposition  and  invitation  from  the  Japanese  Court 
to  the  distinguished  Doctor  of  Divinity  Dr.  Bouthoin.  The 
renown  of  Dr.  Bouthoin  among  the  learned  of  Japan  has 
caused  the  special  invitation  to  him ;  a  scholar  endowed  by 
an  ample  knowledge  and  persuasive  eloquence   to  cite  and 


176  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

instance  as  well  as  illustrate  the  superior  advantages  to 
Japan  and  civilization  in  the  filial  embrace  of  mother 
English.  "  For  to  this  it  must  come  predestinated,"  says  the 
astonishing  applicant.  "  We  seem  to  see  a  fitness  in  it,"  says 
the  cogitative  Rev.  Doctor.  "  And  an  Island  England  in 
those  waters,  will  do  wonders  for  Commerce,"  adds  the 
former.  ••  We  think  of  things  more  pregnant,"  concludes 
the  latter,  with  a  dry  gleam  of  ecclesiastical  kuowingness. 
And  let  the  editor  of  the  Review  upon  his  recent  pamphlet, 
and  let  the  prelate  reprimanding  him,  and  let  the  newspapers 
criticizing  his  pure  Saxon,  have  a  care !  Funds,  universally 
the  most  convincing  of  credentials,  are  placed  at  Dr. 
Bouthoin's  disposal :  only  it  is  requested,  that  for  the  present 
the  expedition  be  secret.  "  Better  so,"  says  pure  Saxon's 
champion.  On  a  day  patented  for  secrecy,  and  swearing-in 
the  whole  American  Continent  through  the  cables  to  keep 
the  secret  by  declaring  the  patent,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bouthoin, 
accompanied  by  his  curate,  the  Rev.  Mancate  Semhians, 
stumbling  across  portmanteaux  crammed  with  lexicons  and 
dictionaries  and  other  tubes  of  the  voice  of  Hermes,  takes 
possession  of  berths  in  the  ship  Polypheme,  bound,  as  they 
mutually  conceive,  for  the  biggest  adventure  ever  embarked 
on  by  a  far-thoughted,  high-thoughted,  patriotic  pair  speaking 
pure  Saxon  or  other. 

Colney,  with  apologies  to  his  hearers,  avoided  the  custom 
of  our  period  (called  the  Realistic)  to  create,  when  casual 
opportunity  offers,  a  belief  in  the  narrative  by  promoting 
nausea  in  the  audience.  He  passed  under  veil  the  Rev. 
Doctor's  acknowledgement  of  Neptune's  power,  and  the 
temporary  collapse  of  Mr.  Semhians.  Proceeding  at  once  to 
the  comments  of  these  high-class  missionaries  on  the  really 
curious  inquisitiveness  of  certain  of  the  foreign  passengers 
on  board,  he  introduced  to  th^rn  the  indisputably  learned, 
the  very  argumentative,  crashing,  arrogant,  pedantic,  dog- 
matic, philological  German  gentleman,  Dr.  Gannius,  reeking 
of  the  Teutonic  Professor,  as  a  library  volume  of  its  leather. 
With  him  is  his  fair-haired  artless  daughter  Delphica.  An 
interesting  couple  for  the  beguilement  of  a  voyage  :  she  so 
beautifully  moderates  his  irascible  incisiveness  !  Yet  there 
is  a  strange  tone  that  they  have.  What,  then,  of  the  polite, 
the  anecdotic  Gallic  M.  Falarique,  who  studiously  engages 
the  young  lady  in  colloquy  when  Mr.  Semhians  is  agitating 


OF   NATURE   AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  177 

outside  them  to  say  a  word?  What  of  that  out-pouring, 
explosive,  equally  voluble,  uncontrolled  M.  Bobinikine,  a 
Mongol  Eussian,  shaped,  featured,  hued  like  the  pot-boiled, 
round  and  tight  young  dumpling  of  our  primitive  boyhood, 
which  smokes  on  the  dish  from  the  pot?  And  what  of 
another,  hitherto  unnoticed,  whose  nose  is  of  the  hooked 
vulturine,  whose  name  transpires  as  Pisistratus  Mytharete? 
He  hears  Dr.  Bouthoin  declaim  some  lines  of  Homer,  and 
beseeches  him  for  the  designation  of  that  language.  Greek, 
is  it  ?  Greek  of  the  Asiatic  ancient  days  of  the  beginning 
of  the  poetic  chants?  Dr.  Gannius  crashes  cachinnation. 
Dr.  Bouthoin  caps  himself  with  the  offended  Don.  Mr. 
Semhians  opens  half  an  eye  and  a  whole  mouth.  There 
must  be  a  mystery,  these  two  exclaim  to  one  another  in 
privacy.  Delphica  draws  Mr.  Semhians  aside.  Blushing 
over  his  white  necktie,  like  the  coast  of  Labrador  at  the 
transient  wink  of  its  Jack-in-the-box  Apollo,  Mr.  Semhians 
faintly  tells  of  a  conversation  he  has  had  with  the  ingenuous 
fair  one;  and  she  ardent  as  he  for  the  throning  of  our 
incomparable  Saxon  English  in  the  mouths  of  the  races  of 
mankind.  Strange! — she  paitly  suspects  the  Frenchman, 
the  Eussian,  the  attentive  silent  Greek,  to  be  all  of  them  bound 
for  the  Court  of  Japan.  Concurrents?  Can  it  be?  We  are 
absolutely  to  enter  on  a  contention  with  rivals  ?  Dr. 
Bouthoin  speaks  to  Dr.  Gannius.  He  is  astonished,  he  says  ; 
he  could  not  have  imagined  it !  "  Have  you  ever  imagined 
anything?"  Dr.  Gannius  asks  him.  Entomologist,  botanist, 
palaeontologist,  philologist,  and  at  sound  of  horn  a  ready 
regimental  corporal,  Dr.  Gannius  wears  good  manners  as  a 
pair  of  bath-slippers,  to  rally  and  kick  his  old  infant  of  an 
Englishman  ;  who,  in  awe  of  his  later  renown  and  manifest 
might,  makes  it  a  point  of  discretion  to  be  ultra-amiable ;  for 
-  he  certainly  is  not  in  training,  he  has  no  alliances,  and  he 
must  diplomatize ;  and  the  German  is  a  strong  one ;  a 
relative  too;  he  is  the  Saxon's  cousin,  to  say  the  least.  This 
German  has  the  habit  of  pushing  past  politeness  to  carry  his 
argumentative  war  into  the  enemy's  country  :  and  he  pre- 
sents on  all  sides  a  solid  rampart  of  recent  great  deeds  done, 
and  mailed  readiness  for  the  doing  of  more,  if  we  think  of 
assailing  him  in  that  way.  We  are  really  like  the  poor 
beasts  which  have  cast  their  shells  or  cases,  helpless  flesh  to 
his  beak.     So  we  are  cousinly. 


178  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Whether  more  amused  than  amazed,  we  know  not,  "Dr. 
Gannius  hears  from  "  our  simpleton  of  the  pastures,"  as  he 
calls  the  Rev.  Doctor  to  his  daughter,  that  he  and  Mr. 
Semhians  have  absolutely  pushed  forth  upon  this  most 
mighty  of  enterprises  naked  of  any'  backing  from  their 
Government !  Babes  in  the  Wood  that  they  are  !  a  la  grace 
de  dieu  at  every  turn  that  cries  for  astutia,  they  show  *io 
sign  or  symbol  of  English  arms  behind  them,  to  support — and 
with  the  grandest  of  national  prizes  in  view  ! — the  pleading 
oration  before  the  Court  of  the  elect,  erudites,  we  will  call 
them,  of  an  intelligent,  yet  half  barbarous,  people  ;  hesitating, 
these,  between  eloquence  and  rival  eloquence,  cunning  and 
rival  cunning.  Why,  in  such  a  case,  the  shadow-nimbus  of 
Force  is  needed  to  decide  the  sinking  of  the  scales.  But 
have  these  English  never  read  their  Shakespeare,  that  they 
show  so  barren  an  acquaintance  with  human,  to  say  nothing 
of  semi-barbaric,  nature?  But  it  is  here  that  we  Germans 
prove  our  claim  to  being  the  sons  of  his  mind. — Dr.  Gannius, 
m  contempt,  throws  off  the  mask  :  he  also  is  a  concurrent. 
And  not  only  is  he  the  chosen  by  election  of  the  chief 
Universities  of  his  land,  he  has  behind  him,  as  Athene  dilat- 
ing Achilles,  the  clenched  fist  of  the  Prince  of  thunder  and 
lightning  of  his  time.  German,  Japan  shall  be  !  he  publicly 
swears  before  them  all.  M.  Falarique  damascenes  his  sharpest 
smile;  M.  Bobinikine  double-dimples  his  puddingest:  M. 
Mytharete  rolls  a  forefinger  over  his  beak ;  Dr.  Bouthoin 
enlarges  his  eye  on  a  snnny  mote.  And  such  is  the  master- 
ful effect  of  a  frank  diplomacy,  that  when  one  party  shows 
his  hand,  the  others  find  the  reverse  of  concealment  in  hiding 
their  own.  Dr.  Bouthoin  and  Mr.  JSemhians  are  compelled 
to  suspect  themselves  to  be  encompassed  with  rivals,  presump- 
tively supported  by  their  Governments.  The  worthy  gentle- 
men had  hoped  to  tumble  into  good  fortune,  as  in  the  blessed 
old  English  manner.  "  It  has  even  been  thus  with  us : 
unhelped  we  do  it  !  "  exclaims  the  Rev.  Doctor.  He  is  roused 
from  dejection  by  hearing  Mr.  Semhians  shyly  (he  has 
published  verse)  tell  of  the  fair- tressed  Delphica's  phosphorial 
enthusiasm  for  our  galaxy  of  British  Poets.  Assisted  by  Mr. 
Seinhians,  he  begins  to  imagine,  that  he  has,  in  the  person 
of  this  artless  devotee  an  ally,  who  will,  through  her  worship 
of  our  Poets  (by  treachery  to  her  sire — a  small  matter)  sacri- 
fice  her   guttural   tongue,   by  enabling*   him  (through   the 


OF   NATURE   AND    CIRCUMSTANCE.  179 

exercise  of  her  arts,  charms,  intrigues — also  a  small  matter) 
to  obtain  the  first  audience  of  the  Japanese  erudites. — 
Delphica,  with  each  of  the  rivals  in  turn,  is  very  pretty 
Comedy.  She  is  aware  that  M.  Falarique  is  her  most  redoubt- 
able adversary,  by  the  time  that  the  vast  fleet  of  steamboats 
(containing  newspaper  reporters)  is  beheld  from  the  decks 
of  the  Polypheme  puffing  past  Sandy  Hook. 

There  Colney  left  them,  for  the  next  instalment  of  the 
serial. 

Nesta  glanced  at  Dudley  Sowerby.  She  liked  him  for  his 
pained  frown  at  the  part  his  countrymen  were  made  to  play, 
but  did  wish  that  he  would  keep  from  expressing  it  in  a 
countenance  that  suggested  a  worried  knot ;  and  mischiev- 
ously she  said  :  M  Do  you  take  to  Delphica  ?  " 

He  replied,  with  an  evident  sincerity,  "  I  cannot  say  I  do.'* 

Had  Mr.  Semhians  been  modelled  on  him  ? 

"  One  bets  on  the  German,  of  course — with  Colney  Dur- 
ance," Victor  said  to  Dr.  Themison,  leading  him  over  the 
grounds  of  Lakelands. 

"  In  any  case,  the  author  teaches  us  to  feel  an  interest 
in  the  rivals.  I  want  to  know  what  comes  of  it,"  said  the 
doctor. 

'*  There's  a  good  opportunity,  one  sees.  But,  mark  me,  it 
will  all  end  in  satire  upon  poor  Old  England.  According  to 
Colney,  we  excel  in  nothing." 

"I  do  not  think  there  is  a  country  that  could  offer  the 
entertainment  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  you  to-day." 

"Ah,  my  friend,  and  you  like  their  voices?  The  con- 
tralto?" 

44  Exquisite." 

Dr.  Themison  had  not  spoken  the  name  of  Radnor. 

"  Shall  we  see  you  at  our  next  concert-evening  in  town  ?  n 
said  Victor ;  and  hearing  "  the  privilege "  mentioned,  his 
sharp  bright  gaze  cleared  to  limpid.  "  You  have  seen  how 
it  stands  with  us  here  !  "  At  once  he  related  what  indeed 
Dr.  Themison  had  begun  speculatively  to  think  might  be  tho 
case. 

Mrs.  Burman  Eadnor  had  dropped  words  touching  a  hus- 
band, and  of  her  desire  to  communicate  with  him,  in  the 
event  of  her  being  given  over  to  the  surgeons  :  she  had  said, 
that  her  husband  was  a  greatly  gifted  man;  setting  her 
head  in  a  compassionate  swing.     This  revelation  of  the  hus- 


180  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

band  soon  after,  was  filling.  And  this  Mr.  Radnor's  com- 
rade's manner  of  it,  was  winning :  a  not  too  self-justifying 
tone ;  not  void  of  feeling  for  the  elder  woman  ;  with  a 
inanly  eulogy  of  the  younger,  who  had  flung  away  the  world 
for  him  and  borne  him  their  one  dear  child.  Victor  took  the 
blame  wholly  upon  himself.  "  It  is  right  that  jovl  should 
know,"  he  said  to  the  doctor's  thoughtful  posture  ;  and  he 
stressed  the  blame ;  and  a  flame  shot  across  his  eyeballs.  He 
brought  home  to  his  hearer  the  hurricane  of  a  man  he  was  in 
the  passion  :  indicating  the  subjection  of  such  a  temperament 
as  this  Victor  Radnor's  to  trials  of  the  moral  restraints  beyond 
his  human  power. 

Dr.  Themison  said :  "  Would  you — we  postpone  that  as 
long  as  we  can  :  but  supposing  the  poor  lady  .  .  .  ?  " 

Victor  broke  in  :  "I  see  her  wish :  I  will." 

The  clash  of  his  answer  rang  beside  Dr.  Themison's  falter- 
ing query. 

We  are  grateful  when  spared  the  conclusion  of  a  sentence 
born  to  stammer.  If  for  that  only,  the  doctor  pressed  Victor's 
hand  warmly. 

"I  may,  then,  convey  some  form  of  assurance,  that  a 
request  of  the  kind  will  be  granted  ?  "  he  said. 

'*  She  has  but  to  call  me  to  her,"  said  Victor,  stiffening  his 
back. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE   GREAT   ASSEMBLY    AT   LAKELAND3. 

Round  the  neighbourhood  of  Lakelands  it  was  known  that 
the  day  of  the  great  gathering  there  had  been  authoritatively 
foretold  as  fine,  by  Mr.  Victor  Radnor ;  and  he  delivered  his 
prophecy  in  the  teeth  of  the  South-western  gale  familiar  to 
our  yachting  month ;  and  he  really  inspired  belief  or  a  kind 
of  trust ;  some  supposing  him  to  draw  from  reserves  of  obser- 
vation, some  choosing  to  confide  in  the  singularly  winged 
sparkle  of  his  eyes.  Lady  Rodwell  Blachington  did;  and 
young  Mrs.  Blathenoy  ;  and  Mrs.  Fanning ;  they  were  ena- 
moured of  it.     And  when  women  stand  for  Hope,  and  any 


THE    GREAT   ASSEMBLY   AT   LAKELANDS.  181 

worshipped  man  for  Promise,  nothing  less  than  redoubled 
confusion  of  him  dissolves  the  union.  Even  then  they  cling 
to  it,  under  an  ejaculation,  that  it  might  and  should  have 
been  otherwise ;  fancy  partly  has  it  otherwise,  in  her  cseru- 
lean  home  above  the  weeping.  So  it  is  good  at  all  points  to 
prophecy  with  the  aspect  of  the  radiant  day  foretold. 

A  storm,  bearing  battle  overhead,  tore  the  night  to  pieces. 
Nataly's  faith  in  the  pleasant  prognostic  wavered  beneath 
the  crashes.  She  had  not,  much  power  of  heart  to  desire 
anything  save  that  which  her  bosom  disavowed.  Uproar 
rather  appeased  her,  calmness  agitated.  She  wished  her 
beloved  to  be  spared  from  a  disappointment,  thinking  he 
deserved  all  successes,  because  of  the  rigours  inflicted  by  her 
present  tonelessness  of  blood  and  being.  Her  unresponsive 
manner  with  him  was  not  due  to  lack  of  fire  in  the  blood  or 
a  loss  of  tenderness.  The  tender  feeling,  under  privations 
unwillingly  imposed,  though  willingly  shared,  now  suffused 
her  reflections,  owing  to  a  gratitude  induced  by  a  novel 
experience  of  him ;  known,  as  it  may  chance,  and  as  it  does 
not  always  chance,  to  both  sexes  in  wedded  intimacy  here 
and  there ;  known  to  women  whose  mates  are  proved  quick 
to  compliance  with  delicate  intuitions  of  their  moods  of 
nature.  A  constant,  almost  visible,  image  of  the  dark  thing 
she  desired,  and  was  bound  not  to  desire,  and  was  remorseful 
for  desiring,  oppressed  her ;  a  perpetual  consequent  warfare 
of  her  spirit  and  the  nature  subject  to  the  thousand  sensa- 
tional hypocrisies  invoked  for  concealment  of  its  reviled 
brutish  baseness,  held  the  woman  suspended  from  her  emo- 
tions. She  coldly  felt  that  a  caress  would  have  melted  her, 
would  have  been  the  temporary  rapture.  Coldly  sh^  had  the 
knowledge  that  the  considerate  withholding  of  it  helped  her 
spirit  to  escape  a  stain.  Less  coldly,  she  thanked  at  heart 
her  beloved,  for  being  a  gentleman  in  their  yoke.  It  plighted 
them  over  flesh. 

He  talked  to  her  on  the  pillow,  just  a  few  sentences ;  and, 
unlike  himself,  a  word  of  City  affairs  :  "  That  fellow  Blathe- 
noy,  with  his  increasing  multitude  of  bills  at  the  Bank  :  muvt 
watch  him  there,  sit  there  regularly.  One  rather  likes  his 
wife.  By  the  way,  if  you  see  him  near  me  to-morrow,  praise 
the  Spanish  climate ;  don't  forget.  He  heads  the  subscrip- 
tion list  of  Lady  Blachington's  Charity." 

Yioiox   chuckled   at   Colney's  humping  of  shoulders  and 


182  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

mouth,  while  the  tempest  seemed  echoing  a  sulphureous 
pessimist.  "  If  old  Colney  had  listened  to  me,  when  India 
gave  proof  of  the  metal  and  South  Africa  began  heaving,  he'd 
have  been  a  fairly  wealthy  man  by  now  ...  ha !  it  would 
have  genialized  him.  A  man  mav  be  a  curmudgeon  with 
money :  the  rule  is  for  him  to  cuddle  himself  and  take  a  side, 
instead  of  dashing  at  his  countrymen  all  round  and  getting 
hated.  Well,  Colney  popular,  can't  be  imagined  :  but  enter- 
taining guests  would  have  diluted  his  acid.  He  has  the 
six  hundred  or  so  a-year  he  started  old  bachelor  on ;  add 
his  miserable  pay  for  Essays.  Literature !  Of  course,  he 
sours.  But  don't  let  me  hear  of  bachelors  moralists.  There 
he  sits  at  his  Temple  Chambers  hatching  epigrams  .  .  . 
pretends  to  have  the  office  of  critic !  Honest  old  fellow,  as 
far  as  his  condition  permits.  I  tell  him  it  will  be  fine  to- 
morrow." 

"  You  are  generally  right,  dear,"  Nataly  said. 

Her  dropping  breath  was  audible. 

Victor  smartly  commended  her  to  slumber,  with  heaven's 
blessing  on  her  and  a  dose  of  soft  nursery  prattle. 

He  squeezed  her  hand.  He  kissed  her  lips  by  day.  She 
heard  him  sigh  settling  himself  into  the  breast  of  night  for 
milk  of  sleep,  like  one  of  the  world's  good  children.  She 
could  have  turned  to  him,  to  show  him  she  was  in  harmony 
with  the  holy  night  and  loving  world,  but  for  the  fear 
founded  on  a  knowledge  of  the  man  he  was;  it  held  her 
frozen  to  the  semblance  of  a  tombstone  lady  beside  her  lord, 
in  the  aisle  where  horror  kindles  pitchy  blackness  with  its 
legions  at  one  movement.  Verily  it  was  the  ghost  of  Mrs. 
Burman  come  to  the  bed,  between  them. 

Meanwhile  the  sun  of  Victor  Eadnor's  popularity  was 
already  up  over  the  extended  circle  likely  to  be  drenched  by 
a  falsification  of  his  daring  augury,  though  the  scud  flew 
swift,  and  the  beeches  raved,  and  the  oaks  roared  and  snarled, 
and  pine-trees  fell  their  lengths.  Fine  to-morrow,  to  a  cer- 
tainty! he  had  been  heard  to  say.  The  doubt  weighed  for 
something;  the  balance  inclined  with  the  gentleman  who 
had  become  so  popular :  for  he  had  done  the  trick  so  sud- 
denly, like  a  stroke  of  the  wizard;  and  was  a  real  man,  not 
one  of  your  spangled  zodiacs  selling  for  sixpence  and  hopping 
to  a  lucky  hit,  laughed  at  nine  times  out  of  ten.  The  reason- 
ing went — and  it  somewhat  affected  the  mansion  as  well  as 


THE    GREAT    ASSEMBLY   AT    LAKELANDS.  183 

the  cottage, — that  if  lie  had  become  popular  in  this  astonish- 
ing fashion,  after  making  one  of  the  biggest  fortunes  of 
modern  times,  he  might,  he  must,  have  secret  gifts.  "  You 
can't  foretell  weather !  "  cried  a  pothouse  sceptic.  But  the 
workmen  at  Lakelands  declared  that  he  had  foretold  it. 
Sceptics  among  the  common  folk  were  quaintly  silenced  by 
other  tales  of  him,  being  a  whiff  from  the  delirium  attending 
any  mention  of  his  name. 

How  had  he  become  suddenly  so  popular  as  to  rouse  in 
the  mind  of  Mr.  Caddis,  the  sitting  Member  for  the  division 
of  the  county  (said  to  have  the  seat  in  his  pocket),  a  par- 
ticular inquisitiveness  to  know  the  bearing  of  his  politics? 
Mr.  Radnor  was  rich,  true  :  but  these  are  days  when  wealthy 
men,  ambitious  of  notoriety,  do  not  always  prove  faithful 
to  their  class  ;  some  of  them  are  cunning  to  bid  for  the 
suffrages  of  the  irresponsible,  recklessly  enfranchised,  cor- 
ruptible masses.  Mr.  Caddis,  if  he  had  the  seat  in  his  pocket, 
had  it  from  the  support  of  a  class  trusting  him  to  support 
its  interests  :  he  could  count  on  the  landowners,  on  the 
clergy,  on  the  retired  or  retiring  or  comfortably  cushioned 
merchants  resident  about  Wrensham,  on  the  many  obsequious 
among  electoral  shopmen ;  annually  he  threw  open  his 
grounds,  and  he  subscribed,  patronized,  did  what  was  ex- 
pected ;  and  he  was  not  popular ;  he  was  unpopular.  Why  ? 
But  why  was  the  sun  of  this  23rd  August,  shining  from  its 
rise  royally  upon  pacified,  enrolled  and  liveried  armies  of 
cloud,  more  agreeable  to  earth's  populations  than  his  pinched 
appearance  of  the  poor  mopped  red  nose  and  melancholic 
rheumy  eyelets  on  a  January  day !  Undoubtedly  Victor 
Radnor  risked  his  repute  of  prophet.  Yet  his  popularity 
would  have  survived  the  continuance  of  the  storm  and 
deluge.  He  did  this  : — and  the  mystery  puzzling  the  sus- 
picious was  nothing  wonderful : — in  addition  to  a  transparent 
benevolence,  he  spread  a  sort  of  assurance  about  him,  that 
he  thought  the  better  of  the  people  for  their  thinking  well 
of  themselves.  It  came  first  from  the  workmen  at  his  house. 
"  The  right  sort,  and  no  humbug :  likes  you  to  be  men.'' 
Such  a  report  made  tropical  soil  for  any  new  seed. 

Now,  it  is  a  postulate,  to  strengthen  all  poor  commoners, 
that  not  even  in  comparison  with  the  highest  need  we  be 
small  unless  we  yield  to  think  it  of  ourselves.  Do  but 
Btretch  a  hand  to  the  touch  of  earth  in  you,  and  you  spring 


184  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

upon  combative  manhood  again,  from  the  basis  where  all 
are  equal.  Humanity's  historians,  however,  tell  us,  that 
the  exhilaration  bringing  us  consciousness  of  a  stature,  is 
gas  which  too  frequently  has  to  be  administered.  Certes 
the  cocks  among  men  do  not  require  the  process ;  they  get 
it  off  the  sight  of  the  sun  arising  or  a  simple  hen  submissive  : 
but  we  have  our  hibernating  bears  among  men,  our  yoked 
oxen,  cabhorses,  beaten  dogs ;  we  have  on  large  patches  of 
these  Islands,  a  Saxon  population,  much  wanting  assistance, 
if  they  are  not  to  feel  themselves  beaten,  driven,  caught  by 
the  neck,  yoked  and  heavy-headed.  Blest,  then,  is  he  who 
gives  them  a  sense  of  the  pride  of  standing  on  legs.  Beer, 
ordinarily  their  solitary  helper  beneath  the  iron  canopy  of 
wealth,  is  known  to  them  as  a  bitter  usurer ;  it  knocks  them 
flat  in  their  persons  and  their  fortunes,  for  the  short  spell 
of  recreative  exaltation.  They  send  up  their  rough  glory 
round  the  name  of  the  gentleman — a  stranger,  but  their 
friend :  and  never  is  friend  to  be  thought  of  as  a  stranger 
— who  manages  to  get  the  holiday  for  AV  rem  ham  and  there- 
about, that  they  may  hurl  away  for  one  jolly  day  the  old 
hat  of  a  doddered  humbleness,  and  trip  to  the  strains  of  the 
internal  music  he  has  unwound. 

Says  he:  Is  it  a  Charity  Concert?  Charity  begins  at 
home,  says  he :  and  if  I  welcome  you  gentry  on  behalf  of 
the  poor  of  London,  why,  it  follows  you  grant  me  the  right 
to  make  a  beginning  with  the  poor  of  our  parrs  down  here 
He  puts  it  so,  no  master  nor  mistress  neither  could  refuse 
him.  Why,  the  workmen  at  his  house  were  nigh  pitching 
the  contractors  all  sprawling  on  a  strike,  and  Mr.  Radnor 
takes  train,  harangues  'em  and  rubs  'em  smooth ;  ten 
minutes  by  the  clock,  they  say ;  and  return  train  to  his 
business  in  town ;  by  reason  of  good  sense  and  feeling,  it 
was;  poor  men  don't  ask  for  more.  A  working  man,  all 
the  world  over,  asks  but  justice  and  a  little  relaxation — just 
a  collar  of  fat  to  his  lean. 

Mr.  Caddis,  M.P.,  pursuing  the  riddle  of  popularity,  which 
irritated  and  repelled  as  constantly  as  it  attracted  him, 
would  have  come  nearer  to  an  instructive  presentment  of 
it,  by  listening  to  these  plain  fellows,  than  he  was  in  the 
line  of  equipages,  at  a  later  hour  of  the  day.  The  remarks 
of  the  comfortably  cushioned  and  wheeled,  though  they  be 
eulogistic   to  extravagance,   are  vapourish    when  we  court 


THE    GREAT   ASSEMBLY   AT   LAKELANDS.  185 

them  for  nourishment ;  substantially,  they  are  hones  to  the 
cynical.  He  heard  enumerations  of  Mr.  Radnor's  riches, 
eclipsing  his  own  past  compute.  A  merchant,  a  holder  of 
mines,  Director  of  a  mighty  Bank,  projector  of  running 
Rails,  a  princely  millionaire,  and  determined  to  be  popular—- 
what  was  the  aim  of  the  man  ?  It  is  the  curse  of  modern , 
times,  that  we  never  can  be  sure  of  our  Parliamentary  seat ; 
not  when  we  have  it  in  our  pockets !  The  Romans  have  left 
us  golden  words  with  regard  to  the  fickleness  of  the  populace ; 
we  have  our  Horace,  our  Juvenal,  we  have  our  Johnson ;  and 
in  this  vaunted  age  of  reason  it  is,  that  we  surrender  our- 
selves into  the  hands  of  the  pooulace  !  Panem  et  circenses  ! 
Mr.  Caddis  repeated  it,  after  his  fathers  ;  his  fathers  and  he 
had  not  headed  them  out  of  that  original  voracity.  There 
they  were,  for  moneyed  legislators  to  bewail  their  appetites. 
And  it  was  an  article  of  his  legislation,  to  keep  them  there. 

Pedestrian  purchasers  of  tickets  for  the  Charity  Concert, 
rather  openly,  in  an  envelope  of  humour,  confessed  to  the 
bait  of  the  Radnor  bread  with  bit  of  fun.  Savoury  rumours 
were  sweeping  across  Wrensham.  Mr.  Radnor  had  borrowed 
footmen  of  the  principal  houses  about.  Cartloads  of  pro 
visions  had  been  seen  to  come.  An  immediate  reward  of  a 
deed  of  benevolence,  is  a  thing  sensibly  heavenly ;  and  the 
five-shilling  tickets  were  paid  for  as  if  for  a  packet  on  the 
counter.  '  Unacquainted  with  Mr.  Radnor,  although  the  re- 
ports of  him  struck  a  summons  to  their  gastric  juices,  resem- 
bling in  its  effect  a  clamorous  cordiality,  they  were  chilled, 
on  their  steps  along  the  half-rolled  new  gravel-road  to  the 
house,  by  seeing  three  tables  of  prodigious  length,  where 
very  evidently  a  feast  had  raged:  one  to  plump  the  people 
— perhaps  excessively  courted  by  great  gentlemen  of  late  ; 
shopkeepers,  the  villagers,  children.  These  had  been  at  it 
for  two  merry  hours.  They  had  risen.  They  were  beef 
and  pudding  on  legs  ;  in  some  quarters,  beer  amiably  manifest, 
owing  to  the  flourishes  of  a  military  band.  Boys,  who  had 
shaken  room  through  their  magical  young  corporations  fol 
fresh  stowage,  darted  out  of  a  chasing  circle  to  the  crumbled 
cornucopia  regretfully  forsaken  fifteen  minutes  back,  and 
buried  another  tart.  Plenty  still  reigned :  it  was  the  will 
vi  the  Master  that  it  should. 

We  divert  our  attention,  resigned  in  stoic  humour,  to  the 
bill  of  the  Concert  music,  handed  us  with  our  tickets  at  the 


186  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

park-gates:  we  have  no  right  to  expect  refreshment;  wo 
came  for  the  music,  to  be  charitable.  Signora  Bianca 
Luciani :  of  whom  we  have  read  almost  to  the  hearing  her ; 
enough  to  make  the  mistake  at  times.  The  grand  violinist 
Durandarte  :  forcibly  detained  on  his  way  to  America.  Mr. 
Radnor  sent  him  a  blank  cheque : — no !  —so  Mr.  Radnor 
besought  him  in  person  :  .he  is  irresistible;  a  great  musician 
himself;  it  is  becoming  quite  the  modern  style.  We  have 
now  English  noblemen  who  play  the  horn,  the  fife — the 
drum,  some  say !  We  may  yet  be  Merrie  England  again, 
wirh  our  nobles  taking  the  lead. 

England's  nobles  as  a  musical  band  at  the  head  of  a 
marching  and  dancing  population,  pictured  happily  an  old 
Comervative  country,  that  retained  its  members  of  aristocracy 
in  the  foremost  places  while  subjecting  them  to  downright 
uses.  Their  ancestors,  beholding  them  there,  would  be 
satisfied  on  the  point  of  honour ;  perhaps  enlivened  by 
hearing  them  at  fife  and  drum. — 

But  middle-class  pedestrians,  having  paid  five  shillings 
for  a  ticket  to  hear  the  music  they  love,  and  not  having  full 
assurance  of  refreshment,  are  often,  latterly,  satirical  upon 
their  superiors;  and,  over  this  country  at  least,  require  the 
refreshment,  that  the  democratic  sprouts  in  them  may  be 
reconciled  with  aristocracy.  Do  not  listen  to  them  further 
on  the  subject.  They  vote  safely  enough  when  the  day 
comes,  if  there  is  no  prae tern atui  ally  strong  pull  the  other 
way. 

They  perceive  the  name  of  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby, 
fourth  down  the  Concert-bill ;  marked  for  a  flute-duet  with 
Mr.  Victor  Radnor,  Miss  Nesta  Victoria  Radnor  accompany- 
ing at  the  piano.  It  may  mean  ?  ...  do  you  want  a  whisper 
to  suggest  to  you  what  it  may  mean  ?  The  father's  wealth 
is  enormous;  the  mother  is  a  beautiful  majestic  woman  in 
her  prime.  And  see,  she  sings:  a  wonderful  voice.  And 
lower  down,  a  duet  with  her  daughter  :  violins  and  clarionet ; 
how  funny ;  something  Hungarian.  And  in  the  Second 
Part,  Schubert's  Ave  Maria — Oh  !  when  we  hear  that,  we 
dissolve.  She  was  a  singer  before  he  married  her,  they  say : 
a  lady  by  birth :  one  of  the  first  County  families.  But  it 
was  a  gift,  and  she  could  not  be  kept  from  it,  and  was  going, 
when  they  met. — and  it  was  love !  the  most  perfect  duet. 
For  him  she  abandoned  the  Stage.     You  must  remember, 


THE    GREAT   ASSEMBLY   AT   LAKELANDS.  187 

tbat  in  their  young  days  the  Stage  was  many  stages  beneath 
the  esteem  entertained  for  it  now.  Domestic  Concerts  are 
got  up  to  gratify  her ;  a  Miss  Fredericks  :  good  old  English 
name.  Mr.  Eadnor  calls  his  daughter,  Freddy;  so  Mr. 
Taplow,  the  architect,  pays.  They  are  for  modern  music 
and  ancient.  Tannhduser,  Wagner,  you  see.  Pergolese. 
Flute-duet,  Mercadante.  Here  we  have  him  ! — Durandarte  : 
Air  Basque,  variations — his  own.  Again,  Senor  Durandarte, 
Mendelssohn.  Encore  him,  and  he  plays  you  a  national 
piece.  A  dark  little  creature  a  Life-guardsman  could  hold- 
up on  his  outstretched  hand  for  the  fifteen  minutes  of  the 
performance;  but  he  fills  the  hall  and  thrills  the  heart, 
wafts  you  to  heaven ;  and  does  it  as  though  he  were  con- 
versing with  his  Andalusian  lady-love  in  easy  whispers 
about  their  mutual  passion  for  Spanish  chocolate  all  the 
while  :  so  the  musical  critic  of  the  Tirra-Lirra  saj's.  Express 
trains  every  half  hour  from  London;  all  the  big  people 
of  the  city.  Mr.  Radnor  commands  them,  like  Royalty. 
Totally  different  from  that  old  figure  of  the  wealthy  City 
merchant;  young,  vigorous,  elegant,  a  man  of  taste,  highest 
culture,  speaks  the  lauguages  of  Europe,  patron  of  the  Arts, 
a  perfect  gentleman.  His  mother  was  one  of  the  Mont- 
gomerys,  Mr.  Taplow  says.  And  it  was  General  Radnor,  a 
most  distinguished  officer,  dying  knighted.  But  Mr.  Victor 
Radnor  would  not  take  less  than  a  Barony — and  then  only 
with  descent  of  title  to  his  daughter,  in  her  own  right. 

Mr.  Taplow  had  said  as  much  as  Victor  Radnor  chose  that 
he  should  say. 

Carriages  were  in  flow  for  an  hour :  pedestrians  formed  a 
wavy  coil.  Judgeing  by  numbers,  the  entertainment  was  a 
success,  would  the  hall  contain  them?  Marvels  were  told 
of  the  hall.  Every  ticket  entered  and  was  enfolded ;  almost 
all  had  a  seat.  Chivalry  stood.  It  is  a  breeched  abstraction, 
sacrificeing  voluntarily  and  genially  to  the  Fair,  for  a 
restoring  of  the  balance  between  the  sexes,  that  the  division 
of  good  things  be  rather  in  the  fair  ones'  favour,  as  they  are 
to  think  :  with  the  warning  to  them,  that  the  establishment 
of  their  claim  for  equality  puts  an  end  to  the  priceless 
privileges  of  petticoats.  Women  must  be  mad,  to  provoke 
such  a  warning;  and  the  majority  of  them  submissively 
show  their  good  sense.  They  send  up  an  incense  of  per- 
fumery, all  the  bouquets  of  the  chemist  commingled;  most 


188  ONE    OF  OUR    CONQUERORS. 

nourishing  to  the  idea  of  woman  in  the  nose  of  man.  They 
are  a  forest  foliage-rustle  of  silks  and  muslins,  magic  inter- 
weaving, or  the  mythology,  if  you  prefer  it.  See,  hear, 
smell,  they  are  Juno,  Venus,  Hebe,  to  you.  "We  must  have 
poetry  with  them ;  otherwise  they  are  better  in  the  kitchen. 
Is  there — but  there  is  not ;  there  is  not  present  one  of 
the  chivalrous  breeched  who  could  prefer  the  shocking 
emancipated  gristly  female,  which  imposes  propriety  on  our 
sensations  and  inner  dreams,  by  petrifying  in  the  tender 
bud  of  them.  Colonel  Corfe  is  the  man  to  hear  on  such  a 
theme.  He  is  a  colonel  of  Companies.  But  those  are  his 
diversion,  as  the  British  Army  has  been  to  the  warrior. 
Puellis  idoneus,  he  is  professe  ily  a  lady's  man,  a  rose-beetle, 
and  a  fine  specimen  of  a  common  kind :  and  he  has  been 
that  thing,  that  shining  delight  of  the  lap  of  ladies,  for  a 
spell  of  years,  necessitating  a  certain  sparkle  of  the  saccharine 
crystals  preserving  him,  to  conceal  the  muster.  He  has  to 
be  fascinating,  or  he  would  look  outworn,  forlorn.  On  one 
side  of  him  is  Lady  Carmine ;  on  the  other,  Lady  Swanage ; 
dames  embedded  in  the  blooming  maturity  of  England's 
conservatory.  Their  lords  (an  Earl,  a  Baron)  are  of  the 
lords  who  go  down  to  the  City  to  sow  a  title  for  a  repair  of 
their  poor  incomes,  and  are  to  be  commended  for  frankly 
accepting  the  new  dispensation  while  they  retain  the  many 
advantages  of  the  uncancelled  ancient.  Thus  gently  does 
a  maternal  Old  England  let  them  down.  Projectors  of 
Companies,  Directors,  Founders;  Railway  magnates,  actual 
kings  and  nobles  (though  one  cannot  yet  persuade  old 
reverence  to  do  homage  with  the  ancestral  spontaneity  to 
the  uncrowned,  uncoroneted,  people  of  our  sphere) ;  holders 
of  Shares  in  gold  mines,  Shares  in  Afrio's  blue  mud  of  the 
glittering  teeth  we  draw  for  English  beauty  to  wear  in  the 
ear,  on  the  neck,  at  the  wrist ;  Bankers  and  wives  of  Bankers. 
Victor  passed  among  them,  chatting  right  and  left. 

Lady  Carmine  asked  him :  "  Is  Durandarte  counted  on  ?  " 
He  answered :  "  I  made  sure  of  the  Luciani." 
She  serenely  understood.  Artistes  are  licenced  people, 
with  a  Bohemian  instead  of  the  titular  glitter  for  the 
bewildering  of  moralists;  as  paste  will  pass  for  diamonds 
where  the  mirror  is  held  up  to  Nature  by  bold  super- 
numeraries. 

He  wished  to  introduce  Nesta.    His  girl  was  on  the  raised 


THE    GREAT   ASSEMBLY   AT    LAKELANDS.  189 

orchestral  flooring.  Nataly  held  her  fast  to  a  music- 
scroll. 

Mr.  Peridon,  sad  for  the  absence  and  cause  of  absence  of 
Louise  de  Seilles, — summoned  in  the  morning  abruptly  to 
Bourges,  where  her  brother  lay  with  his  life  endangered  by 
an  accident  at  Artillery  practise, — Mr.  Peridon  was  generally 
conductor.  Victor  was  to  lead  the  full  force  of  amateurs  in 
the  brisk  overture  to  Zampa.  He  perceived  a  movement  of 
Nataly,  Nesta,  and  Peridon.  "  They  have  come,"  he  said ; 
he  jumped  on  the  orchestra  boards  and  hastened  to  greet  the 
Luciani  with  Durandarte  in  the  retiring-room. 

His  departure  raised  the  whisper  that  he  would  wield  the 
baton.  An  opinion  was  unuttered.  His  name  for  the  flute- 
duet  with  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby  had  not  provoked  the 
reserve  opinion ;  it  seemed,  on  the  whole,  a  pretty  thing  in 
him  to  condescend  to  do:  the  sentiment  he  awakened  was 
not  flustered  by  it.  But  the  act  of  leading,  appeared  as  an 
official  thing  to  do.  Our  souffle  of  sentiment  will  be  seen 
subsiding  under  a  breath,  without  a  repressive  word  to  send 
it  down.  Sir  Rodwell  Blachington  would  have  preferred 
Radnor's  not  leading  or  playing  either.  Colonel  Corfe  and 
Mr.  Caddis  declined  to  consider  such  conduct  English,  in  a 
man  of  station  .  .  .  notwithstanding  Royal  Highnesses,  who 
are  at  least  partly  English :  partly,  we  say,  under  our  breath, 
remembering  our  old  ideal  of  an  English  gentleman,  in 
opposition  to  German  tastes.  It  is  true,  that  the  whole 
country  is  changeing,  decomposing  ! 

The  colonel  fished  for  Lady  Carmine's  view. — And  Lady 
Swanage  too  ?  Both  of  the  distinguished  ladies  approved  of 
Mr.  Radnor's  leading — for  a  leading  off.  Women  are  pleased 
to  see  their  favourite  in  the  place  of  prominence — as  long  as 
Fortune  swims  him  unbuffeted,  or  one  should  say,  unbattered, 
up  the  mounting  wave.  Besides  these  ladies  had  none  of 
the  colonel's  remainder  of  juvenile  English  sense  of  the 
manly,  his  adolescent's  intolerance  of  the  eccentric,  suspicion 
and  contempt  of  any  supposed  affectation,  which  was  not 
ostentatiously,  stalkingly  practised  to  subdue  the  sex.  And 
you  cannot  wield  a  baton  without  looking  affected.  And  at 
one  of  the  Colonel's  Clubs  in  town,  only  five  years  back,  an 
English  musical  composer,  who  had  not  then  made  his 
money — now  by  the  mystery  of  events  knighted  / — had  heen 
(he    makes    now    fifteen    thousand    a    year)    black-balled. 


190  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"Fiddler?  no;  can't  admit  a  Fiddler  to  associate  on  equal 
terms  with  gentlemen."  Only  five  years  back .  and  at 
present  we  are  having  the  Fiddler  everywhere. 

A  sprinkling  of  the  minor  ladies  also  would  have  been 
glad  if  Mr.  Eadnor  had  kept  himself  somewhat  more  exclu- 
sive. Dr.  Schlesien  heard  remarks,  upon  which  his  weighty 
Teutonic  mind  sat  crushingly.  Do  these  English  care  one 
bit  for  music? — for  anything  finer  than  material  stuffs? — 
what  that  man  Durance  calls,  '  their  beef,  their  beer,  and 
their  pew  in  eternity  '  ?  His  wrath  at  their  babble  and  petty 
brabble  doubted  that  they  did. 

But  they  do.  Art  has  a  hold  of  them.  They  pay  for  it ; 
and  the  thing  purchnsed  grapples.  It  will  get  to  their 
bosoms  to  breathe  from  them  in  time :  entirely  overcoming 
the  taste  for  feudalism,  which  still  a  little  objects  to  see 
their  born  gentleman  acting  as  leader  of  musicians.  A 
people  of  slow  movement,  developing  tardily,  their  country 
is  wanting  in  the  distincter  features,  from  being  always  in 
the  transitional  state,  like  certain  sea-fish  rolling  head  over 
— you  know  not  head  from  tail.  Without  the  Welsh,  Irish, 
Scot,  in  their  composition,  there  would  not  be  much  of  the 
yeasty  ferment :  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  Welsh, 
Irish,  Scot,  are  now  largely  of  their  numbers ;  and  the  taste 
for  elegance,  and  for  spiritual  utterance,  for  Song,  nay,  for 
Ideas,  is  there  among  them,  though  it  does  not  everywhere 
cover  a  rocky  surface  to  bewitch  the  eyes  of  aliens ; — like 
Louise  de  Seilles  and  Dr.  Schlesien,  for  example ;  aliens 
having  no  hostile  disposition  toward  the  people  they  were 
compelled  to  criticize  :  honourably  granting,  that  this  people 
has  a  great  history.  Even  such  has  the  Lion,  with  Homer 
for  the  transcriber  of  his  deeds.  But  the  gentle  aliens  would 
image  our  emergence  from  wildness  as  the  unsocial  spectacle 
presented  by  the  drear  menagerie  Lion,  alone  or  mated ; 
with  hardly  an  animated  moment  save  when  the  raw  red 
joint  is  beneath  his  paw,  reminding  him  of  the  desert's 
pasture. 

Nevertheless,  where  Strength  is,  there  is  hope  : — it  may  be 
s iid  more  truly  than  of  the  breath  of  Life ;  which  is  perhaps 
but  the  bucket  of  breath,  muddy  with  the  sediment  of  the 
well :  whereas  we  have  in  Strength  a  hero,  if  a  malefactor  „ 
whose  muscles  shall  haul  him  up  to  the  light  he  will  prove 
worthy  of,  when  that  divinity  has  shown  him  his  uncleanness. 


THE    GREAT   ASSEMBLY   AT   LAKELANDS.  191 

And  when  Strength  is  not  exercising,  you  are  sure  to  see 
Satirists  jump  on  his  back.  Dozens,  foreign  and  domestic, 
are  on  the  back  of  Old  England ;  a  tribute  to  our  quality  if 
at  the  same  time  an  irritating  scourge.  The  domestic  are 
in  excess ;  and  let  us  own  that  their  view  of  the  potentate, 
as  an  apathetic  beast  of  power,  who  will  neither  show  the 
power  nor  woo  the  graces ;  pretending  all  the  while  to  be 
eminently  above  the  beast,  and  posturing  in  an  inefficient 
mimicry  of  the  civilized,  excites  to  satire.  Colney  Durance 
had  his  excuses.  He  could  point  to  the  chief  creative  minds 
of  the  country  for  generations,  as  beginning  their  survey 
genially,  ending  venomously,  because  of  an  exasperating 
unreason  and  scum  in  the  bubble  of  the  scenes,  called  social, 
around  them.  Viola  under  his  chin,  he  gazed  along  the 
crowded  hall,  which  was  to  him  a  rich  national  pudding  of 
the  sycophants,  the  hypocrites,  the  burlies,  the  idiots;  dregs 
of  the  depths  and  froth  of  the  surface ;  bowing  to  one,  that 
they  may  scorn  another ;  instituting  a  Charity,  for  their 
poorer  fawning  fellows  to  relieve  their  purses  and  assist 
them  in  tricking  the  world  and  their  Maker : — and  so  forth, 
a  tiiesome  tiiade:  and  as  it  was  not  on  his  lips,  but  in  the 
stomach  of  the  painful  creature,  let  him  grind  that  hurdy- 
gurdy  for  himself.  His  friend  Victor  set  it  stirring  :  Victor 
had  here  what  he  aimed  at!  How  Success  derides  Am- 
bition !  And  for  this  he  imperilled  the  happiness  of  the 
worthy  woman  he  loved !  Exposed  her  to  our  fen-fogs  and 
foul  snakes — of  whom  one  or  more  might  be  in  the  assembly 
now :  all  because  of  his  insane  itch  to  be  the  bobbing  cork 
on  the  wave  of  the  minute  !  Colney's  rapid  interjections 
condensed  upon  the  habitual  shrug  at  human  folly,  just  when 
Victor,  fronting  the  glassy  stare  of  Colonel  Corfe,  tapped  to 
start  his  orchestra  through  the  lively  first  bars  of  the  over- 
ture to  Zamjpa. 

We  soon  perceive  that  the  post  Mr.  Eadnor  fills  he 
thoroughly  fills,  whatever  it  may  be.  Zampa  takes  horse 
from  the  opening.  We  have  no  amateur  conductor  riding 
ahead .  violins,  'cellos,  piano,  wind-stops :  Peridon,  Catkin, 
Pempton,  Yatt,  Cormyn,  Colney,  Mrs.  Cormyn,  Dudley 
Sowerby  •  they  are  spirited  on,  patted,  subdued,  muted, 
raised,  rushed  anew,  away,  held  in  hand,  in  both  hands. 
Not  earnestness  worn  as  a  cloak,  but  issuing,  we  see ;  not 
simply  a  leader  of  musicians,  a  leader  of  men.     The  halo  of 


192  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

the  millionaire  behind,  assures  us  of  a  development  in  the 
character  of  England's  merchant  princes.  The  homage  we 
pay  him  flatters  us.  A  delightful  overture,  masterfully- 
executed  ;  ended  too  soon ;  except  that  the  programme 
forbids  the  ordinary  interpretation  of  prolonged  applause. 
Mr.  Kadnor  is  one  of  those  who  do  everything  consummately. 
And  we  have  a  monition  within,  that  a  course  of  spiritual 
enjoyment  will  rouse  the  call  for  bodily  refreshment.  His 
genial  nod  and  laugh  and  word  of  commendation  to'  his 
troop  persuade  us  oddly,  we  know  not  how,  of  provision  to 
come.  At  the  door  of  the  retiring-room,  see,  he  is  congratu- 
lated by  Luciani  and  Durandarte.  Miss  Priscilla  Graves  is 
now  to  sing  a  Schumann.  Down  later,  it  is  a  duet  with  the 
Rev.  Septimus  Barmby.  We  have  nothing  to  be  ashamed 
of  in  her,  before  an  Italian  Operatic  singer  I  Ices  after  the 
first  part  is  over. 


CHAPTEE    XXI. 

DARTREY   FENELLAN. 

Had  Nataly  and  Nesta  known  who  was  outside  helping 
Skepsey  to  play  ball  with  the  boys,  they  would  not  have 
worked  through  their  share  of  the  performance  with  so 
graceful  a  composure.  Even  Simeon  Fenellan  was  unaware 
that  his  half-brother  Dartrey  had  landed  in  England.  Dar- 
trey  went  first  to  Victor's  office,  where  he  found  Skepsey 
packing  the  day's  letters  and  circulars  into  the  bag  for  the 
delivery  of  them  at  Lakelands.  They  sprang  a  chatter,  and 
they  missed  the  last  of  the  express  trains:  which  did  not 
greatly  signify,  Skepsey  said,  "as  it  was  a  Concert."  To 
hear  his  hero  talk,  was  the  music  for  him ;  and  he  richly 
enjoyed  the  pacing  along  the  railway-platform. 

Arrived  on  the  grounds,  they  took  opposite  sides  in  a 
game  of  rounders,  at  that  moment  tossing  heads  or  tails  for 
innings.  These  boys  were  slovenly  players,  and  were  made 
unhappy  by  Skepsey's  fussy  instructions  to  them  in  smart- 
ness. They  had  a  stupid  way  of  feeding  the  stick,  and  they 
ran  sprawling ;  it  concerned  Great  Britain  for  them  to  learn 


DARTRE?   FENELLAN.  193 

how  to  use  their  legs.  It  was  pitiful  for  the  country  to  see 
how  lumpish  her  younger  children  were.  Dartrey  knew 
his  little  man  and  laughed,  after  warning  him  that  his 
English  would  want  many  lessons  before  they  stomached 
the  mixture  of  discipline  and  pleasure.  So  it  appeared  :  the 
pride  of  the  boys  in  themselves,  their  confidence,  enjoyment 
of  the  game,  were  all  gone  ;  and  all  were  speedily  out  but 
Skepsey  ;  who  ran  for  the  rounder,  with  his  coat  off,  sharp 
as  a  porpoise,  and  would  have  got  it,  he  had  it  in  his  grasp, 
when,  at  the  jump,  just  over  the  line  of  the  goal,  a  clever 
fling,  if  ever  was,  caught  him  a  crack  on  that  part  of  the 
human  frame  where  sound  is  best  achieved.  Then  were 
these  young  lumps  tran.s formed  to  limber,  lither,  merry 
fellows.  They  rejoiced  Skepsey's  heart;  they  did  every- 
thing better,  ran  and  dodged  and  threw  in  a  style  to  win 
the  nod  from  the  future  official  inspector  of  Games  and 
Amusements  of  the  common  people;  a  deputy  of  the  Govern- 
ment, proposed  by  Skepsey  to  his  hero  with  a  deferential 
eagerness.  Dartrey  clapped  him  on  the  shoulder,  softly 
laughing. 

"  System — Mr.  Durance  is  right — they  must  have  system, 
if  they  are  to  appreciate  a  holiday,"  Skepsey  said ;  and  he 
sent  a  wretched  gaze  around,  at  the  justification  of  some  of 
the  lurid  views  of  Mr.  Durance,  in  signs  of  the  holiday 
wasted  ; — impoverishing  the  country's  manhood  :  in  a  small 
degree,  it  may  be  argued,  but  we  ask,  can  the  country  afford 
it,  while  foreign  nations  are  drilling  their  youth,  teaching 
them  to  be  ready  to  move  in  squads  or  masses,  like  the  fist 
of  a  pugilist.  Skepsey  left  it  to  his  look  to  speak  his 
thought.  He  saw  an  enemy  in  tobacco.  The  drowsiness  of 
beer  had  stretched  various  hulks  under  trees.  Ponderous 
cricket  lumbered  half-alive.  Flabby  fun  knocked-up  a  yell. 
And  it  was  rather  vexatious  to  see  girls  dancing  in  good  time 
to  the  band-music.  One  had  a  male-partner,  who  hopped  his 
loutish  burlesque  of  the  thing  he  could  not  do. 

Apparently,  too  certainly,  none  but  the  girls  had  a  notion 
of  orderly  muscular  exercise.  Of  what  use  are  girls  !  Girls 
have  their  one  mission  on  earth ;  and  let  them  be  healthy 
by  all  means,  for  the  sake  of  it ;  only,  they  should  not  seem 
to  prove  that  Old  England  is  better  represented  on  the 
female  side.  Skepsey  heard,  with  a  nip  of  spite  at  his  bosom, 
a  small  body  of  them  singing  in  chorus  as  they  walked  in 

O 


194  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

step,  arm  in  arm,  actually  marched :  and  to  the  rearward, 
none  of  these  girls  heeding,  there  were  the  louts  at  their 
burlesque  of  jigs  and  fisticuffs  !     '  Cherry  HipeJ  was  the  song, 

"  It's  delightful  to  hear  them !  "   said  Dartrey. 

Skepsey  muttered  jealously  of  their  having  been  trained. 

The  song,  which  drew  Dartrey  Fenellan  to  the  quick  of  an 
English  home,  planted  him  at  the  same  time  in  Africa  to 
hear  it.  Dewy  on  a  parched  forehead  it  fell,  England  the 
shedding  heaven. 

He  fetched  a  deep  breath,  as  of  gratitude  for  vital  refresh- 
ment. He  had  his  thoughts  upon  the  training  of  our 
English  to  be  something  besides  the  machinery  of  capitalists, 
and  upon  the  country  as  a  blessed  mother  instead  of  the  most 
capricious  of  maudlin  stepdames. 

He  flicked  his  leg  with  the  stick  he  carried,  said :  "  Your 
master's  the  man  to  make  a  change  among  them,  old  friend !  " 
and  strolled  along  to  a  group  surrounding  two  fellows  who 
shammed  a  bout  at  single-stick.  Vacuity  in  the  attack  on 
either  side,  contributed  to  the  joint  success  of  the  defense. 
They  paused  under  inspection  ;  and  Dartrey  said :  "  You're 
burning  to  give  them  a  lesson,  Skepsey." 

Skepsey  had  no  objection  to  his  hero's  doing  so,  though  at 
his  personal  cost. 

The  sticks  were  handed  to  them ;  the  crowd  increased ; 
their  rounders  boys  had  spied  them,  and  came  trooping  to 
the  scene.  Skepsey  was  directed  to  hit  in  earnest.  His 
defensive  attitude  flashed,  and  he  was  at  head  and  right  and 
left  leg,  and  giving  point,  recovering,  thrusting  madly,  and 
again  at  shoulder  and  thigh,  with  bravos  for  reward  of  a 
man  meaning  business  ;  until  a  topper  on  his  hat,  a  cut  over 
the  right  thigh,  and  the  stick  in  his  middle-rib,  told  the 
spectators  of  a  scientific  adversary;  and  loudly  now  the 
gentleman  was  cheered.  An  undercurrent  of  warm  feeling 
ran  for  the  plucky  little  one  at  it  hot  again  in  spite  of  the 
strokes,  and  when  he  fetched  his  master  a  handsome  thud 
across  the  shoulder,  and  the  gentleman  gave  up  and  compli- 
mented him,  Skepsey  had  applause.  He  then  begged  his 
hero  to  put  the  previous  couple  in  position,  through  a  few  of 
the  opening  movements.  They  were  horribly  sheepish  at 
first.  Meantime  two  boys  had  got  hold  of  sticks,  and  both 
had  gone  to  work  in  Skepsey's  gallant  style ;  and  soon  one 
was  howling.      He  excused  himself,  because  of  the  funny- 


DARTREY  FENELLAN.  195 

bone,  situated,  in  his  case,  higher  than  usual  up  the  arm. 
And  now  the  pair  of  men  were  giving  and  taking  cuts  to 
make  a  rhirfoceros  caper. 

"  Very  well ;  begin  that  way ;  try  what  you  can  bear," 
said  Dartrey. 

Skepsey  watched  them,  in  felicity  for  love  of  the  fray, 
pained  by  the  disregard  of  science. 

Comments  on  the  pretty  play,  indicating  a  reminiscent 
acquaintance  with  it,  and  the  capacity  for  critical  observa- 
tions, were  started.  Assaults,  wonderful  tricks  of  a  slashing 
Life-Guardsman,  one  spectator  had  witnessed  at  an  exhi- 
bition in  a  London  hall.  Boxing  too.  You  may  see  djsplays 
of  boxing  still  in  places.  How  about  a  prize-fight? — With 
money  on  it  ? — Eh,  but  you  don't  expect  men  to  stand  up  to 
be  knocked  into  rumpsteaks  for  nothing? — No,  but  it's  they 
there  bets ! — Right,  and  that's  a  game  gone  to  ruin  along  of 
outsiders. — But  it  always  was  and  it  always  will  be  popular 
with  Englishmen  ! 

Great  English  names  of  young  days,  before  the  wintry 
shadow  of  the  law  hajd  blighted  them,  received  their  withered 
laurels.  Emulous  boys  were  in  the  heroic  posture.  Good  ! 
sparring  does  no  hurt :  Skepsey  seized  a  likely  lad,  Dartrey 
another.  Nature  created  the  Ring  for  them.  Now  then, 
arms  and  head  well  up,  chest  hearty,  shoulders  down,  out 
with  the  right  fist,  just  below  the  level  of  the  chin ;  out  with 
the  left  fist  farther,  right  oat,  except  for  that  bit  of  curve ; 
so,  and  draw  it  slightly  back  for  wary — pussy  at  the  spring. 
Firm  you  stand,  feeling  the  muscles  of  both  legs,  left  half  a 
pace  ahead,  right  planted,  both  stringy.  None  of  your  milk- 
pail  looks ;  show  us  jaw,  you  bull-dogs.  Now  then,  left  from 
the  shoulder,  straight  at  right  of  head. — Good,  and  alacrity 
called  on  vigour  in  Skepsey's  pupil ;  Dartrey's  had  the  n>t 
on  his  mouth  before  he  could  parry  right  arm  up.  "  Foul 
blow ! "  Dartrey  cried.  Skepsey  vowed  to  the  contrary- 
Dartrey  reiterated  his  charge.  Skepsey  was  a  figure  of  the 
negative,  gesticulating  and  protesting.  Dartrey  appealed 
tempestuously  to  the  Ring ;  Skepsey  likewise,  in  a  tone  of 
injury.  He  addressed  a  remonstrance  to  Captain  Dartrey. 
"  Hang  your  captain,  sir  !  I  call  you  a  coward ;  come  on," 
said  the  resolute  gentleman,  already  in  ripe  form  for  the 
attack.  His  blue  eyes  were  like  the  springing  sunrise  over 
ricges  of  the  seas ;  and  Skepsey  jumped,  to  his  meaning. 


196  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Boys  and  men  were  spectators  of  a  real  scientific  set-to,  a 
lovely  show.  They  were  half  puzzled,  it  seemed  so  deadly. 
And  the  little  one  got  in  his  blows  at  the  gentleman,  who 
had  to  be  hopping.  Only,  the  worse  the  gentleman  caught 
it,  the  friendlier  his  countenance  became.  That  was  the 
wonder,  and  that  gave  them  the  key.  But  it  was  deliciously 
near  to  the  real  thing. 

Dartrey  and  Skepsey  shook  hands. 

"  And  now,  you  fellows,  3Tou're  to  know,  that  this  is  one 
of  the  champions;  and  you  take  your  lesson  from  him  and 
thank  him,"  Dartrey  said,  as  he  turned  on  his  heel  to  strike 
and  greet  the  flow  from  the  house. 

"  Dartrey  come  ! "  Victor,  Fenellan,  Colney,  had  him  by 
the  hand  in  turn.  Pure  sweetness  of  suddenly  awakened  joy 
sat  in  Nataly's  eyes  as  she  swam  to  welcome  him.  Nesta 
moved  a  step,  seemed~~¥esitatTng,  and  she  tripped  forward. 
*  Dear  Captain  Dartrey  !  " 

"  He  did  not  say  :  "  But  what  a  change  in  you  !  " 

"  It  is  blue-butterfly,  all  the  same,"  Nataly  spoke  to  his 
look.  # 

Victor  hurriedly  pronounced  the  formal  introduction 
between  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby  and  Captain  Dartrey 
Fenellan.  The  bronze  face  and  the  milky  bowed  to  one 
another  ceremoniously ;  the  latter  faintly  flushing. 

"  So  here  you  are  at  last,"  Victor  said.  "  You  stay  with 
us." 

"  To-morrow  or  later,  if  you'll  have  me.  I  go  down  to  my 
people  to-night." 

"But  you  stay  in  England  now?"  Nataly's  voice  wavered 
on  the  question. 

"  There's  a  chance  of  my  being  off  to  Upper  Burmah  before 
the  week's  ended." 

"  Ah,  dear,  dear ! "  sighed  Fenellan ;  "  and  out  of  good 
comes  evil ! — as  grandfather  Deucalion  exclaimed,  when  he 
gallantly  handed  up  his  dripping  wife  from  the  mud  of  the 
Deluge  waters.  Do  you  mean  to  be  running  and  Jewing  it 
on  for  ever,  with  only  afnod  for  friends,  Dart?" 

"Lord,  Simmy,  what  a  sound  of  home  there  is  in  your  old 
nonsense  !  "  Dartrey  said. 

His  eyes  of  strong  dark  blue  colour  and  the  foreign  swarthi- 
ness  of  his  brows  and  cheeks  and  neck  mixed  the  familiar  and 
the  strange,  ir  the  sight  of  the  women  who  knew  him, 


DARTREY  FENELLAN.  197 

The  bill-broker's  fair-tressed  young  wife  whispered  of 
curiosity  concerning  him  to  Nataly.  He  dressed  like  a 
sailor,  he  stood  like  a  soldier  :  and  was  he  married  ?  Yes,  he 
was  married. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  imagined  a  something  in  Mrs.  Radnor's 
tone.  She  could  account  for  it ;  not  bv  the  ordinary  reading 
of  the  feminine  in  the  feminine,  but  through  a  husband  who 
professed  to  know  secrets.  She  was  young  in  years  and 
experience,  ten  months  wedded,  disappointedly  awakened, 
enlivened  by  the  hour,  kindled  by  a  novel  figure  of  man,  fretful 
for  a  dash  of  imprudence.  This  Mrs.  Radnor  should  be  the 
one  to  second  her  very  innocent  turn  for  a  galopade ;  her 
own  position  allowed  of  any  little  diverting  jig  or  reel,  or 
plunge  in  a  bath — she  required  it,  for  the  domestic  Jacob 
Blathenoy  was  a  dry  chip :  proved  such,  without  a  day's 
variation  during  the  whole  of  the  ten  wedded  months.  Nataly 
gratified  her  spoken  wish.  Dai  trey  Fenellan  bowed  to  the 
lady,  and  she  withdrew  him,  seeing  composedly  that  other 
and  greater  ladies  had  the  wish  un gratified.  Their  husbands 
were  not  so  rich  as  hers,  and  their  complexions  would  hardly 
have  pleased  the  handsome  brown-faced  officer  so  well. 

Banquet,  equal  to  a  blast  of  trumpet,  was  the  detaining 
word  for  the  multitude.  It  circulated,  one  knows  not  how. 
Eloquent  as  the  whiffs  to  the  sniffs  (and  nowhere  is  eloquence 
to  match  it,  when  the  latter  are  sharpened  from  within  to 
without),  the  word  was  very  soon  over  the  field.  Mr.  Carling 
may  have  helped ;  he  had  it  from  Fenellan  ;  and  he  was 
among  the  principal  groups,  claiming  or  making  acquaint- 
ances, as  a  lawyer  should  do.  The  Concert  was  compliment- 
arily  a  topic  :  Durandarte  divine  ! — did  not  everybody  think 
so  ?  Everybody  did,  in  default  of  a  term  for  overtopping  it. 
Our  language  is  poor  at  hyperbole  ;  our  voices  are  stronger. 
Gestures  and  heaven-sent  eyeballs  invoke  to  display  the  inef- 
fable. Where  was  Durandarte  now  ?  Gone ;  already  gone ;  off 
with  the  Luciani  for  evening  engagements ;  he  came  simply 
to  oblige  his  dear  friend  Mr.  Radnor.  Cheque  fifty  guineas  • 
hardly  more  on  both  sides  than  an  exchange  of  smiles.  Ah, 
these  merchant-princes  !  What  of  Mr.  Radnor's  amateur 
instrumentalists  ?  Amateurs,  they  are  not  to  be  named  : 
perfect  musicians.  Mr.  Radnor  is  the  perfection  of  a  host. 
Yes,  yes ;  Mrs.  Radnor ;  Miss  Radnor  too :  delicious  voices ; 
but  what  is  it  about  Mr.  Radnor  so  captivating !    He  is  not 


198  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

quite  English,  yet  he  is  not  at  all  foreign.    Is  he  verv  adven- 
turous in  business,  as  they  say  ? 

"  Soundest  head  in  the  City  of  London,"  Mr.  Blathenoy 
remarked. 

Sir  Rodwell  Blachington  gave  his  nod. 

The  crowd  interjected,  half-sighing.  We  ought  to  be  prond 
of  such  a  man  !  Perhaps  we  are  a  trifle  exaggerating,  says 
its  heart.  But  that  we  are  wholly  grateful  to  him,  is  a 
distinct  conclusion.  And  he  may  be  one  of  the  great  men  of 
his  time  :  he  has  a  quite  individual  style  of  dress. 

Lady  Rodwell  Blachington  observed  to  Colney  Durance  : 
"Mr.  Radnor  bids  fair  to  become  the  idol  of  the  English 
people." 

"  If  he  can  prove  himself  to  be  sufficiently  the  dupe  of  the 
English  people,"  said  Colney. 

"idol — dupe?"  interjected  Sir  Rodwell,  and  his  eyebrows 
fixed  at  the  perch  of  Colney's  famous ■  national  interrogation ' 
over  vacancy  of  understanding,  as  if  from  the  pull  of  a  string. 
He  had  his  audience  with  him ;  and  the  satirist  had  nothing 
but  his  inner  gush  of  acids  at  sight  of  a  planted  barb. 

Colney  was  asked  to  explain.  He  never  explained.  He 
performed  a  series  of  astonishing  leaps,  like  the  branchy 
baboon  above  the  traveller's  head  in  the  tropical  forest,  and 
led  them  into  the  trap  they  assisted  him  to  prepare  for  them. 
"  No  humour,  do  you  say  ?  The  English  have  no  humour  ?  " 
a  nephew  of  Lady  Blachington's  inquired  of  him,  with  polite 
pugnacity,  and  was  cordially  assured,  that  "  he  vindicated 
them." 

"And  Altruistic!  another  specimen  of  the  modern  coin- 
age," a  classical  Church  dignitary,  in  grammarian  disgust, 
remarked  to  a  lady,  as  they  passed. 

Colney  pricked-up  his  ears.  It  struck  him  that  he  might 
fish  for  suggestions  in  aid  of  the  Grand  Argument  before  the 
Elders  of  the  Court  of  Japan.  Dr.  Wardan,  whose  recog- 
nition he  could  claim,  stated  to  him,  that  the  lady  and  he 
were  enumerating  words  of  a  doubtfully  legitimate  quality 
now  being  inflicted  upon  the  language. 

"The  slang  from  below  is  perhaps  preferable  ?"  said  Colney. 

"  As  little— less." 

"  But  a  pirate-tongue,  cut-off  from  its  roots,  must  continue 
to  practise  piracy,  surely,  or  else  take  re-inforcements  in 
slang,  otherwise  it  is  inexpressive  of  new  ideas." 


DARTRE Y   FENELLAN.  199 

"Possibly  the  new  ideas  are  best  expressed  in  slang." 

"  If  insular.  They  will  consequently  be  incommunicable 
to  foreigners.  You  would,  then,  have  us  be  trading  with 
tokens  instead  a  preoious  currency?  Yet  I  cannot  perceive 
the  advantage  of  letting  our  ideas  be  clothed  so  racy  of  the 
obscener  soil;  considering  the  pretensions  of  the  English 
language  to  become  the  universal.  If  we  refuse  additions 
from  above,  they  force  themselves  on  us  from  below." 

Dr.  Wardan  liked  the  frame  of  the  observations,  disliked 
the  substance. 

"  One  is  to  understand  that  the  English  language  has 
these  pretensions  ?  "  he  said  : — he  minced  in  his  manner,  after 
the  well-known  mortar-board  and  tassel  type ;  the  mouthing 
of  a  petrifaction  :  clearly  useless  to  the  pleadings  of  the 
patriotic  Dr.  Bouthoin  and  his  curate. 

He  gave  no  grip  to  Colney,  who  groaned  at  cheap  Donnish 
sarcasm,  and  let  him  go,  after  dealing  him  a  hard  pellet  or 
two  in  a  cracker-covering. 

There  was  Victor  all  over  the  field  netting  his  ephemerce ! 
And  he  who  feeds  on  them,  to  pay  a  price  for  their  congratu- 
lations and  flatteries,  he  is  one  of  them  himself ! 

Nesta  came  tripping  from  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby. 
'*  Dear  Mr.  Durance,  where  is  Captain  Dartrey  ?  " 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  had  just  conducted  her  husband  through 
a  crowd,  for  an  introduction  of  him  to  Captain  Dartrey. 
That  was  perceptible. 

Dudley  Sowerby  followed  Nesta  closely :  he  struck  across 
the  path  of  the  Eev.  Septimus :  again  he  had  the  hollow  of 
her  ear  at  disposal. 

"  Mr.  Radnor  was  excellent.  He  does  everything  consum- 
mately :  really,  we  are  all  sensible  of  it.  I  am.  He  must 
lead  us  in  a  symphony.  These  light  '  champagne  overtures ' 
of  French  composers,  as  Mr.  Fenellan  calls  them,  do  not 
bring  out  his  whole  ability  : — Zampa,  Le  yre  aux-clercs, 
Masaniello,  and  the  like." 

"Your  duet  together  went  well." 

"  Thanks  to  you — to  you.     You  kept  us  together." 

"  Papa  was  the  runaway  or  strain-the-leash,  if  there  was 
one." 

"  He  is  impetuous,  he  is  so  fervent.  But,  Miss  Radnor,  I 
could  not  be  the  runaway — with  you  .  .  .  with  you  at  the 
piano.    Indeed,  I  .  .  .  shall  we  stroll  down  ?   1  love  the  lake." 


200  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

44  You  will  bear  the  bell  for  your  cold  dinner  very  soon." 

"I  am  not  hungry.  I  would  so  much  rather  talk — hear 
you.  But  you  are  hungry  ?  You  have  been  singing  :  twice, 
three  times  !  Opera  singers,  they  say,  eat  hot  suppers ;  they 
drink  stout.  And  I  never  heard  your  voice  more  effective. 
Yours  is  a  voice  that  .  .  .  something  of  the  feeling  one  has 
in  hearing  cathedral  voices :  carry  one  up.  I  remember,  in 
Dresden,  once,  a  Fraulein  Kiihnstreich,  a  prodigy,  \ery 
young,  considering  her  accomplishments.  But  it  was  not 
the  same." 

Nesta  wondered  at  Dartrey  Fenellan  for  staying  so  long 
with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blathenoy. 

*'  Ah,  Mr.  Sowerby,  if  I  am  to  have  flattery,  I  cannot  take 
it  as  a  milliner's  dumby  figure  wears  the  beautiful  dress ;  I 
must  point  out  my  view  of  some  of  my  merits." 

"  Oh !  do,  I  beg,  Miss  .  .  .  You  have  a  Christian  name : 
and  I  too:  and  once  ,  .  .  not  Mr.  Sowerby:  yes,  it  was 
Dudley!" 

"  Quite  accidentally,  and  a  world  of  pardons  entreated." 

"  And  Dudley  begged  Dudley  might  be  Dudley  always ! " 

He  was  deepening  to  the  Barmby  intonation — apparently 
Cupid's;  but  a  shade  more  airily  Pagan,  not  so  fearfully 
clerical. 

Her  father  had  withdrawn  Dartrey  Fenellan  from  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Blathenoy.     Dr.  Schlesien  was  bowing  with  Dartrey. 

"And  if  Durandarte  would  only — but  you  are  one  with 
Miss  Graves  to  depreciate  my  Durandarte,  in  favour  of  the 
more  classical  Jachimo  ;  whom  we  all  admire  ;  but  you  shall 
be  just,"  said  she,  and  she  pouted.  She  had  seen  her  father 
plant  Dartrey  Fenellan  in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  City 
gentlemen. 

Simeon  touched  among  them  to  pluck  at  his  brother.  He 
had  not  a  chance ;  he  retired,  and  swam  into  the  salmon-net 
of  seductive  Mrs.  Blathenoy's  broad  bright  smile. 

"  It's  a  matter  of  mines,  and  they're  hovering  in  the  atti- 
tude of  the  query,  like  corkscrews  over  a  bottle,  profoundly 
indifferent  to  blood-relationship,"  he  said  to  her. 

"  Pray,  stay  and  be  consoled  by  me,"  said  the  fair  young 
woman.  "You  are  to  point  me  out  all  the  distinguished 
people.     Is  it  true,  that  your  brother  has  left  the  army  ?  " 

"  Dartrey  no  longer  wears  the  red.  Here  comes  Colonel 
Corfe,  who  does.     England  has  her  army  still !  " 


DARTRE Y   FENELLA.N.  201 

44  His  wife  persuaded  him  ?  " 

"  You  see  he  is  wearing  the  black." 

"For  her?  How  very  very  sad!  Tell  me — what  a 
funnily  dressed  woman  meeting  that  gentleman  ! " 

"Hush — a  friend  of  the  warrior.  Splendid  weather, 
Colonel  Corfe." 

"  Superb  toilettes ! "  The  colonel  eyed  Mrs.  Blathenoy 
dilatingly,  advanced,  bowed,  and  opened  the  siege. 

She  decided  a  calculation  upon  his  age,  made  a  wall  of  it, 
smilingly  agreed  with  his  encomium  of  the  Concert,  and 
toned  her  voice  to  Fenellan' s  comprehension :  "  Did  it  occur 
recently  ?  " 

"  Months ;  in  Africa ;  I  haven't  the  date." 

'•  Such  numbers  of  people  one  would  wish  to  know !  Who 
are  those  ladies  holding  a  Court,  where  Mr.  Eadnor  is?" 

"Lady  Carmine,  Lady  Swanage — if  it  is  your  wish?" 
interposed  the  colonel. 

She  dealt  him  a  forgiving  smile.  "  And  that  pleasant- 
looking  old  gentleman?" 

Colonel  Corfe  drew-up.  Fenellan  said :  "  Are  we  veterans 
at  forty  or  so  ?  " 

"  Well,  it's  the  romance,  perhaps ! "  She  raised  her 
shoulders. 

The  colonel's  intelligence  ran  a  dog's  nose  for  a  lady's 
interjections.  "The  romance?  ...  at  forty,  fifty?  gone? 
Miss  Julinks,  the  great  heiress  and  a  beauty,  has  chosen  him 
over  the  heads  of  all  the  young  men  of  his  time.  Cranmer 
Lotsdale.     Most  romantic  history ! " 

"  She's  in  love  with  that,  I  suppose." 

"Now  you  direct  my  attention  to  him,"  said  Fenellan, 
"the  writing  of  the  romantic  history  has  made  the  texture 
look  a  trifle  thready.     You  have  a  terrible  eye." 

It  was  thrown  to  where  the  person  stood  who  had  first 
within  a  few  minutes  helped  her  to  form  critical  estimates 
of  men,  more  consciously  to  read  them. 

"  Your  brother  stays  in  England  ?  " 

"  The  fear  is,  that  he's  off  again." 

"  Annoying  for  you.  If  I  had  a  brother,  I  would  not  let 
him  go." 

"  How  would  you  detain  him  ?  " 

"  Locks  and  bolts,  clock  wrong,  hands  and  arms,  kneeling 
— the  fourth  act  of  the  Huguenots ! " 


202  ONE   OF  OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  He  went  by  way  of  the  window,  I  think.  "Rut  that  was 
a  lover." 

"  Oh  !  well !  "  she  flushed.  She  did  not  hear  the  neglected 
and  astonished  colonel  speak,  and  she  sought  diversion  in 
saying  to  Fenellan :  "  So  many  people  of  distinction  are 
assembled  here  to  day!  Tell  me,  who  is  that  pompous 
gentleman,  who  holds  his  arms  up  doubled,  as  he  walks  ?  " 

"  Like  flappers  of  a  penguin  :  and  advances  in  jerks :  he  is 
bead  of  the  great  Firm  of  Quatley  Brothers :  Sir  Abraham : 
finances  or  farms  one  of  the  South  American  Republics  :  we 
call  him,  Pride  of  Port.  He  consumes  it  and  he  pre- 
sents it." 

"  And  who  is  that  little  man,  who  stops  everybody?" 

"  People  of  distinction  indeed  !  That  little  man — is  your 
upper  lip  underrateing  him?  .  .  .  When  a  lady's  lip  is 
erratically  disdainful,  it  suggests  a  misuse  of  a  copious 
treasury,  deserving  to  be  mulcted,  punished — how? — who 
can  say? — that  little  man,  now  that  little  man,  with  a  lift 
of  his  little  finger,  could  convulse  the  Bacon  Market ! " 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  shook.  Hearing  Colonel  Corfe  exclaim: 
"  Bacon  Market !  "  she  let  fly  a  peal.  Then  she  turned  to  a 
fresh  satellite,  a  round  and  a  ruddy,  'at  her  service  ever/ 
Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing,  and  repeated  Fenellan's  words.  He, 
in  unfeigned  wonderment  at  such  unsuspected  powers,  cried  : 
"  Dear  me ! "  and  stared  at  the  little  man,  making  the  pretty 
lady's  face  a  twinkling  dew. 

He  had  missed  the  Conceit.  Was  it  first-rate ?  Ecstasy 
answered  in  the  female  voice. 

"  Hem'd  fool  I  am  to  keeptanpointments !  "  he  muttered. 

She  reproved  him  :  "  Fie,  Mr.  Urmsing ;  it's  the  making 
of  them,  not  the  keeping !  " 

"  Ah,  my  dear  ma'am,  if  I'd  had  Blathenoy's  luck  when 
he  made  a  certain  appointment.  And  he  was  not  so  much 
older  than  me  ?     The  old  ones  get  the  prizes !  " 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  prompted  Colonel  Corfe  to  laugh  in 
triumph.  The  colonel's  eyebrows  were  up  in  fixity  over 
sleepy  lids.  He  brightened  to  propose  the  conducting  of  the 
pretty  woman  to  the  banquet. 

"  We  shall  see  them  going  in,"  said  she.  "  Mr.  Radnor 
has  a  French  cook,  who  does  wonders.  But  I  heard  him 
asking  for  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing,  I'm  sure  he  expected  The 
Marigolds  at  his  Concert." 


DARTREY   FENELLAN.  20B 

"  Anything  to  oblige  the  company,"  said  the  rustic  ready 
chorister,  clearing  his  throat. 

The  lady'^  feet  were  bent  in  the  direction  of  a  grassy 
knoll,  where  sunflowers,  tulips,  dahlias,  peonies,  of  the  sex 
eclipsed  at  a  distance  its  roses  and  lilies.  Fenellan  saw 
Dartrey,  still  a  centre  of  the  merchantmen,  strolling  thither. 

M  And  do  you  know,  your  brother  is  good  enough  to  dine 
with  us  next  week,  Thursday,  down  here,"  she  murmured 
*'  I  could  venture  to  command  ? — if  you  are  not  induced." 

"  Whichever  word  applies  to  a  faithful  subject." 

"  I  do  so  wish  your  brother  had  not  left  the  army  !  " 

"  You  have  one  son  of  Mars." 

Her  eyes  took  the  colonel  up  to  cast  him  down :  he  was  not 
the  antidote.  She  said  to  him :  "Luciani's  voice  wears  better 
than  her  figure." 

The  colonel  replied :  "  I  remember,"  and  corrected  himself, 
"  at  Eton,  in  jackets :  she  was  not  so  particularly  slim ;  never 
knew  how  to  dress.  You  beat  Italians  there  !  She  moved 
one  as  a  youngster." 

"  Eton  boys  are  so  susceptible ! " 

"  Why,  hulloa,  don't  I  remember  her  coming  out ! — and  do 
you  mean  to  tell  me,"  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  brutally,  addressed 
the  colonel,  "  that  you  were  at  Eton  when  .  .  .  why,  what 
age  do  you  give  the  poor  woman,  then  !  "  He  bellowed, 
"  Eh  ?  "  as  it  were  a  bull  crowing. 

The  colonel  retreated  to  one  of  his  defensive  corners.  "  I 
am  not  aware  that  I  meant  to  tell  you  anything." 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  turned  square-breasted  on  Fenellan : 
"  Fellow's  a  born  donkey  !  " 

"  And  the  mother  lived  ?  "  said  Fenellan. 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  puffed  with  wrath  at  the  fellow. 

Five  minutes  later,  in  the  midst  of  the  group  surrounding 
and  felicitating  Victor,  he  had  sight  of  Fenellan  conversing 
with  fair  ones,  and  it  struck  a  light  in  him  ;  he  went  three 
steps  backward,  with  shouts.  "  Dam  funny  fellow  !  eh  ? 
who  is  he  ?  I  must  have  that  man  at  my  table.  Worth 
fifty  Colonel  Jackasses !  And  I've  got  a  son  in  the  Guards : 
and  as  much  laugh  in  him,  he's  got,  as  a  bladder.  But  we'll 
make  a  party,  eh,  Radnor  ?  with  that  friend  o'  yours.  Dam 
funny  fellow  !  and  precious  little  of  it  going  on  now  among 
the  young  lot.  They're  for  seeing  ghosts  and  gaping  their 
jaws ;  all  for  the  quavers  instead  of  the  capers." 


204  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS, 

He  sounded  and  thrummed  his  roguish  fling-off  for  the 
capers.  A  second  glimpse  of  Fenellan  agitated  the  anecdote, 
as  he  called  it,  seizing  Victor's  arm,  to  have  him  out  of  ear- 
shot of  the  ladies.  Delivery,  not  without  its  throes,  was 
accomplished,  but  imperfectly,  owing  to  sympathetic  convul- 
sions, under  which  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing's  countenance  was 
crinkled  of  many  colours,  as  we  see  the  Spring  rhubarb-leaf. 
Unable  to  repeat  the  brevity  of  Fenellan's  rejoinder,  he  ex- 
patiated on  it  to  convey  it,  swearing  that  it  was  the  kind  of 
thing  done  in  the  old  days,  when  men  were  witty  dogs : — 
pat !  and  pat  back  !  as  in  the  pantomime." 

"Kepartee  !  "  said  Victor.  "He  has  it.  You  shall  know 
him.     You're  the  man  for  him." 

"  He  for  me,  that  he  is  ! — '  Hope  the  mother's  doing  well  ? 
My  card : ' — eh  ?  Grave  as  an  owl !  Look,  there  goes  the 
donkey,  lady  to  right  and  left,  all  ears  for  him — ha !  ha  !  I 
must  have  another  turn  with  your  friend.  •  Mother  lived, 
did  she  ?  '  Dam  funny  fellow,  all  of  the  olden  time !  And 
a  dinner,  bachelor  dinner,  six  of  us,  at  my  place,  next  week, 
say  Wednesday,  half- past  six,  for  a  long  evening — flowing 
bowl — eh,  shall  it  be  ?  " 

Nesta  came  looking  to  find  her  Captain  Dartrey. 

Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing  grew  courtly  of  the  olden  time.  He 
spied  Colonel  Corfe  anew,  and  "  Donkey !  "  rose  to  split  the 
roar  at  his  mouth,  and  full  of  his  anecdote,  he  pursued  some 
congenial  acquaintances,  crying  to  his  host :  "  Wednesday, 
mind  !  eh  ?  by  George,  your  friend's  gizzarded  me  for  the  day !  " 

Plumped  with  the  rich  red  stream  of  life,  this  last  of  the 
squires  of  old  England  thumped  along  among  the  guests,  a 
very  tuning-fork  to  keep  them  at  their  pitch  of  enthusiasm. 
He  encountered  Mr.  Caddis,  and  it  was  an  encounter.  Mr. 
Caddis  represented  his  political  opinions ;  but  here  was  this 
cur  of  a  Caddis  whineing  his  niminy  note  from  his  piminy 
nob,  when  he  was  asked  for  his  hearty  echo  of  the  praises  of 
this  jolly  good  fellow  come  to  waken  the  neighbourhood,  to 
be  a  blessing,  a  blazing  hearth,  a  fall  of  manna : — and  thank 
the  Lord  for  him,  you  desert-dog  !  "  He's  a  merchant  prince, 
and  he's  a  prince  of  a  man,  if  you're  for  titles.  Eh  ?  you 
4  assent  to  my  encomiums  '  You'll  be  calling  me  Mr.  Speaker 
next.  Hang  me,  Caddis,  if  those  Parliamentary  benches  of 
yours  aren't  freezing  you  from  your  seat  up,  and  have  got  to 
your  jaw — my  belief!  " 


DAETREY    FENELLAN.  205 

Mr.  Caddis  was  left  reflecting,  that  we  have,  in  the  dis- 
pensations of  Providence,  when  we  have  a  seat,  to  submit  to 
castigations  -from  butcherly  men  unaccountably  commissioned 
to  solidify  the  seat.  He  could  have  preached  a  discourse 
upon  Success,  to  quiet  the  discontentment  of  the  unseated. 
And  our  world  of  seats  oddly  gained,  quaintly  occupied, 
maliciously  beset,  insensafely  envied,  needs  the  discourse. 
But  it  was  not  delivered,  else  would  it  have  been  here 
written  down  without  mercy,  as  a  medical  prescript,  one  of 
the  grand  specifics.  He  met  Victor,  and,  between  his  dread 
of  him  and  the  counsels  of  a  position  subject  to  stripes,  he 
was  a  genial  thaw.  Victor  beamed;  for  Mr.  Caddis  had 
previously  stood  eminent  as  an  iceberg  of  the  Lakelands' 
party.  Mr.  Inchling  and  Mr.  Caddis  were  introduced.  The 
former  in  Commerce,  the  latter  in  Politics,  their  sustaining 
boast  was,  the  being  our  stable  Englishmen  ;  and  at  once, 
with  cousinly  minds,  they  fell  to  chatting  upon  the  nothings 
agreeably  and  seriously.  Colney  Durance  forsook  a  set  of 
ladies  for  fatter  prey,  and  listened  to  them.  What  he  said, 
Victor  did  not  hear.  The  effect  was  always  to  be  seen,  with 
Inchling  under  Colney.  Fenellan  did  better  service,  really 
good  service. 

Nataly  played  the  heroine  she  was  at  heart.  Why  think 
of  her  as  having  to  act  a  character  !  Twice  had  Car  ing  that 
afternoon,  indirectly  and  directly,  stated  Mrs.  Burman  to  be 
near  the  end  we  crape  a  natural,  a  defensible,  satisfaction  to 
hear  of : — not  wishing  it: — poor  woman  ! — but  pardonably, 
before  man  and  all  the  angels,  wishing,  praying  for  the 
beloved  one  to  enter  into  her  earthly  peace  by  the  agency  of 
the  other's  exit  into  her  heavenly. 

Fenellan  and  Colney  came  together,  and  said  a  word  apiece     | 
of  their  friend. 

'*  In  his  element !  The  dear  old  boy  has  the  look  of  a  gold- 
fish, king  of  his  globe." 

"  The  dear  old  boy  has  to  me  the  look  of  a  pot  on  the  fire, 
with  a  loose  lid." 

I  may  have  the  summons  from  Themison  to-morrow,  Victor 
thought.  The  success  of  the  day  was  a  wine  that  rocked  the 
soberest  of  thoughts.  Fur,  strange  to  confess,  ever  since  the 
fall  on  London^  13 ridge,  his  heart,  influenced  in"  some  degree 
by  KataTy's  depression  perhaps,  had  been  shadowed  by 
doubts   of  his   infallible   instinct   for   success.      Here,  at  a 


206  ONE    OP    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

stroke,  and  before  entering  the  house,  he  had  the  whole 
neighbourhood  about  him :  he  could  feel  that  he  and  Nataly 
stood  in  the  minds  of  the  worthy  people  variously  with  the 
brightness  if  not  with  the  warmth  distinguishable  in  the  bosom 
of  Beaves  Urmsing — the  idea  of  whom  gave  Lakelands  an 
immediate  hearth-glow. 

Armandine  was  thirteen  minutes,  by  his  watch,  behind 
the  time  she  had  named.  Small  blame  to  her.  He  excused 
her  to  Lady  Carmine,  Lady  Swan  age,  Lady  Blachington, 
Mrs.  Fanning,  Sir  Abraham  Quatley,  Mr.  Danny  (of  Bacon 
fame)  and  the  rest  of  the  group  surrounding  Nataly  on  the 
mound  leftward  of  the  white  terraces  descending  to  the  lake; 
where  she  stood  beating  her  foot  fretfully  at  the  word 
brought  by  Nesta,  that  Dartrey  Fenellan  had  departed.  It 
was  her  sunshine  departed.  But  she  went  through  her  task 
of  conversing  amiably.  Colney,  for  a  wonder,  consented  to 
be  useful  in  assisting  Fenellan  to  relate  stories  of  French 
Cooks ;  which  were,  like  the  Eoyal  Hanoverian  oyster,  of  an 
age  for  offering  acceptable  flavour  to  English  hearers.  Nesta 
drew  her  mother's  attention  to  Priscilla  Graves  and  Skepsey; 
the  latter  bending  head  and  assenting.  Nataly  spoke  of  the 
charm  of  Priscilla's  voice  that  day,  in  her  duet  with  the  Eev. 
Septimus.  Mr.  Pempton  looked  ,  he  saw  that  Priscilla  was 
proselytizing.  She  was  perfection  to  him  but  for  one  blotting 
thing.  With  grief  on  his  eyelids,  he  said  to  Nataly  or  to 
himself:  "Meat!" 

"  Dear  friend,  don't  ride  your  hobby  over  us,"  she  replied. 

"  But  it's  with  that  object  they  mount  it,"  said  Victor. 

The  greater  ladies  of  the  assembly  were  quite  ready  to 
accuse  the  sections,  down  to  the  individuals,  of  the  social 
English  (reserving  our  elect)  of  an  itch  to  be  tyrants. 

Colney  was  apologizing  for  them,  with  his  lash :  "  It's 
merely  the  sensible  effect  of  a  want  of  polish  of  the  surface 
when  they  rub  together." 

And  he  heard  Carling  exclaim  to  Victor  :  "  How  comes  the 
fellow  here !  " 

Skepsey  had  rushed  across  an  open  space  to  intercept  a 
leisurely  progressive  man,  whose  hat  was  of  the  shape  Victor 
knew;  and  the  man  wore  the  known  black  gaiters.  In 
appearance,  he  had  the  likeness  of  a  fallen  parson. 

Carling  and  Victor  crossed  looks,  that  were  questions 
carrying  their  answers. 


DARTREY  FENELLAN.  207 

Nataly's  eyes  followed  Victor's.  "  Wlio  is  tlie  man  ?  "  she 
s&id;  and  she  got  no  reply  beyond  a  perky  sparkle  in  his  gaze. 

Others  were  noticing  the  man,  who  Whb  trying  to  pass  by 
Skepsey,  now  on  his  right  side,  now  on  his  left. 

"  There'll  be  no  stopping  him,"  Calling  said,  and  he 
slipped  to  the  rear. 

At  this  juncture,  Armandine's  mellow  bell  proclaimed  her 
readiness. 

Victor  rubbed  the  back  of  his  head.  Nataly  asked  him : 
"  Dear,  is  it  that  man  ?  " 

He  nodded  scantly :  "  Expected,  expected.  I  think  we 
have  our  summons  from  Armandine.  One  moment — poor 
soul !  poor  soul !  Lady  Carmine — Sir  Abraham  Quatley. 
Will  you  lead  ?  Lady  Blachington,  I  secure  you.  One 
moment." 

He  directed  Nataly  to  pair  a  few  of  the  guests ;  he 
hurried  down  the  slope  of  sward. 

Nataly  applied  to  Colney  Durance.  "Do  you  know  the 
man  ? — is  it  that  man  ?  " 

Colney  rejoined  :  "  The  man's  name  is  Jarniman." 

Armandine's  bell  swung  melodiously.  The  guests  had 
grouped,  thickening  for  the  stream  to  procession.  Mrs. 
Blathenoy  claimed  Fenellan  ;  she  requested  him  to  tell  her 
whether  he  had  known  Mrs.  Victor  Eadnor  many  years. 
She  mused.     "  You  like  her  ?  " 

"One  likes  one's  dearest  of  friends  among  women,  does 
one  not  ?  " 

The  lady  nodded  to  his  response.     "  And  your  brother  ?  " 

"  Dartrey  is  devoted  to  her." 

"  I  am  sure,"  said  she,  "  your  brother  is  a  chivalrous  gentle- 
man. I  like  her  too."  She  came  to  her  sentiment  through 
the  sentiment  of  the  chivalrous  gentleman.  Sinking  from 
it,  she  remarked  that  Mr.  Eadnor  was  handsome  still. 
Fenellan  commended  the  subject  to  her,  as  one  to  discourse 
of  when  she  met  Dartrey.  A  smell  of  a  trap-hatch  half- 
open,  afflicted  and  sharpened  him.  It  was  Blathenoy's 
breath  :  husbands  of  young  wives  do  these  villanies,  for 
the  sake  of  showing  their  knowledge.  Fenellan  forbore  to 
i  raise  Mis.  Victor:  he  laid  his  colours  on  Dartrey.  The 
lady  gave  ear  1 11  she  reddened.  He  meant  no  harm,  meant 
nothing  but  good  ;  and  he  was  lighting  the  most  destructive 
of  our  lower  iires 


208  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Visibly,  that  man  Jarniman  was  disposed  of  with  ease. 
As  in  the  street-theatres  of  crowing  Punch,  distance  enlisted 
pantomime  to  do  the  effective  part  of  the  speeches.  Jarni- 
man's  hat  was  off,  he  stood  bent,  he  delivered  his  message. 
He  was  handed  over  to  Skepsey's  care  for  the  receiving  of 
meat  and  drink.  Victor  returned ;  he  had  Lady  Bl aching- 
ton's  hand  on  his  arm ;  he  was  all  hers,  and  in  the  heart  of 
his  company  of  guests  at  the  same  time.  Eyes  that  had 
read  him  closely  for  years,  were  unable  to  spell  a  definite 
signification  on  his  face,  below  the  overflowing  happiness  of 
the  hospitable  man  among  contented  guests.  He  had  in  fact 
something  within  to  enliven  him ;  and  that  was  the  more 
than  suspicion,  amounting  to  an  odour  of  certainty,  that 
Armandine  intended  one  of  her  grand  surprises  for  her 
master,  and  for  the  hundred  and  fifty  or  so  to  be  seated  at 
her  tables  in  the  un  warmed  house  of  Lakelands. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

CONCERNS  THE  INTRUSION   OF   JARNIMAN. 

Armandine  did  her  wonders.  There  is  not  in  the  wide 
range  of  the  Muses  a  more  responsive  instrument  than  man 
to  his  marvellous  cook  ;  and  if  his  notes  were  but  as  flowing 
as  his  pedals  are  zealous,  we  should  be  carried  on  the  tale  of 
the  enthusiasm  she  awakened,  away  from  the  rutted  high- 
road, where  History  now  thinks  of  tightening  her  girdle  for 
an  accelerated  pace. 

The  wonders  were  done :  one  hundred  and  seventy  guests 
plenteously  fed  at  tables  across  the  great  Concert  Hall,  down 
a  length  of  the  conservatory-glass,  on  soups,  fish,  meats,  and 
the  kitchen-garden,  under  play  of  creative  sauces,  all  in  the 
persuasive  steam  of  savouriness ;  every  dish,  one  may  say, 
advancing,  curtseying,  swimming  to  be  your  partner,  instead 
of  passively  submitting  to  the  eye  of  appetite,  consenting  to 
the  teeth,  as  that  rather  melancholy  procession  of  the  cold, 
resembling  established  spinsters  thrice -corseted  in  decorum, 
will  appear  to  do.  Whether  Armandine  had  the  thought  or 
that  she  simply  acted  in  conformity  with  a  Frenchwoman's 


CONCERNS   THE   INTRUSION   OF   JARNIMAN.  209 

direct  good  sense,  we  do  require  to  smell  a  sort  of  animation 
in  the  meats  we  consume.  We  are  still  perhaps  traceably 
related  to. the  Adamite  old-youngster  just  on  his  legs,  who 
betrayed  at  every  turn  his  Darwinian  beginnings,  and 
relished  a  palpitating  unwillingness  in  the  thing  refreshing 
him ;  only  we  young-oLlsters  cherish  the  milder  taste  for 
willingness,  with  a  throb  of  the  vanquished  in  it.  And  a 
seeming  of  that  we  get  from  the  warm  roast.  The  banquet 
to  be  fervently  remembered,  should  smoke,  should  send  out 
a  breath  to  meet  us.  Victor's  crowded  saloon-carriage  was 
one  voice  of  eulogy,  to  raise  Armandine  high  as  the  finale 
rockets  bursting  over  Wrenshain  Station  at  the  start 
London  ward.  How  had  she  managed?  We  foolishly  ques- 
tion the  arts  of  magicians. 

Mi.  Pempton  was  an  apparent  dissentient,  as  the  man 
must  be  who  is  half  a  century  ahead  of  his  fellows  in 
humaneness,  and  saddened  by  the  display  of  slaughtered 
herds  and  their  devourers.  He  had  picked  out  his  vegetable 
and  farinaceous  morsels,  wherever  he  could  get  them  uncon- 
taminated ;  enough  for  sustenance ;  and  the  utmost  he  could 
show  was,  that  he  did  not  complain.  When  mounted  and 
ridden  by  the  satirist,  in  wrath  at  him  for  systematically 
feasting  the  pride  of  the  martyr  on  the  maceration  of  his 
animal  part,  he  put  on  his  martyr's  pride,  which  assumed  a 
perfect  contentment  in  the  critical  depreciation  of  opposing 
systems  :  he  was  drawn  to  state,  as  he  had  often  done,  that 
he  considered  our  animal  part  shamefully  and  dangerously 
overnourished,  and  that  much  of  the  immorality  of  the  world 
was  due  to  the  present  excessive  indulgence  in  meats.  "  Not 
in  drink  ?  "  Miss  Graves  inquired.  "  No,"  he  said  boldly ; 
"  not  equally ;  meats  are  more  insidious.  I  say  nothing  of 
taking  life — of  fattening  for  that  express  purpose  :  diseases 
of  animals:  bad  blood  made  :  cruelty  superinduced  :— it  will 
be  seen  to  be,  it  will  be  looked  back  on,  as  a  form  of,  a 
second  stage  of,  cannibalism.  Let  that  pass.  I  say,  that 
for  excess  in  drinking,  the  penalty  is  paid  instantly,  or  at 
least  on  the  morrow." 

"  Paid  by  the  drunkard's  wife,  you  should  say." 

"  Whereas  intemperance  in  eating,  corrupts  constitution- 
ally, more  spiritually  vitiates,  we  think :  on  the  whole, 
gluttony  is  the  leai .,-generous  of  the  vices." 

(Jolney  lured  Mr.  Pempton   through  a  quagmire  of  the 

t 


210  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

vices  to  declare,  that  it  brutalized  ;  and  stamraeringly  to 
adopt  the  suggestion,  that  our  breeding  of  English  laidies — 
those  lights  of  the  civilized  world — can  hardly  go  with  a 
feeding  upon  flesh  of  beasts.  Priscilla  regretted  that  cham- 
pagne should  have  to  be  pleaded  in  excuse  of  impertinences 
to  her  sex.  They  were  both  combative,  nibbed  for  epigram, 
edged  to  inflict  wounds ;  and  they  were  set  to  shudder 
openly  at  one  another's  practises ;  they  might  have  exposed 
to  Colney  which  of  the  two  maniacal  sections  of  his  English 
had  the  vaster  conceit  of  superiority  in  purity ;  they  were 
baring  themselves,  as  it  were  with  a  garment  flung-off  at 
each  retort.  He  reproached  them  for  undermineing  their 
countrymen ;  whose  Falstaff  panics  demanded  blood  of  ani- 
mals to  restore  them  ;  and  their  periods  of  bragging,  that  they 
should  brandify  their  wits  to  imagine  themselves  Vikings. 

Nataly  interposed.  She  was  vexed  with  him.  He  let  his 
eyelids  drop :  but  the  occasion  for  showing  the  prickliness  of 
the  bristly  social  English,  could  not  be  resisted.  Dr.  Peter 
Yatt  was  tricked  to  confess,  that  small  annoyances  were,  in 
his  experience,  powerful  on  the  human  frame ;  and  Dr.  John 
Cormyn  was  very  neatly  brought  round  to  assure  him  he  was 
mistaken  if  he  supposed  the  homoeopathic  doctor  who  smoked 
was  exercising  a  destructive  influence  on  the  efficacy  of  the 
infinitesimal  doses  he  prescribed;  Dr.  Yatt  chuckled  a  laugh 
at  globules ;  Dr.  Cormyn  at  patients  treated  as  horses  ;  while 
Mr.  Catkin  was  brought  to  praise  the  smoke  of  tobacco  as 
our  sanctuary  from  the  sex  ;  and  Mr.  Peridon  quietly  denied, 
that  the  taking  of  it  into  his  nostrils  from  the  puffs  of  his 
friend  caused  him  sad  silences.  Nest  a  flew  to  protect  the 
admirer  of  her  beloved  Louise.  Her  subsideing  young  excite- 
ment of  the  day  set  her  doating  on  that  moony  melancholy 
in  Mr.  Peridon.  No  one  could  understand  the  grounds  for 
Colney's  more  than  usual  waspishness.  He  trotted  out  the 
fulgent  and  tonal  Church  of  the  Rev.  Septimus  ;  the  skeleton 
of  worship,  so  truly  showing  the  spirit,  in  that  of  Dudley 
Sowerby's  family ;  maliciously  admiring  both ;  and  he  had 
a  spar  with  Fenellan,  ending  in  a  snarl  and  a  shout.  Victor 
said  to  him :  "  Yes,  here,  as  much  as  you  like,  old  Colney, 
but  I  tell  you,  you've  staggered  that  poor  woman  Lady 
Blachington  to-day,  and  her  husband  too ;  and  I  don't  know 
how  many  besides.  What  the  pleasure  of  it  can  be,  I  can't 
guess." 


CONCERNS    THE   INTRUSION   OF   JARNIMAN.  211 

"Nor  I,"  said  Fenellan,  "  but  I'll  own  I  feel  envious ;  like 
fche  girl  among  a  family  of  boys  I  knew,  who  were  all  of 
them  starved  in  their  infancy  by  a  miserly  father,  that  gave 
them  barely  a  bit  of  Graves  to  eat  and  not  a  drop  of  Pemp- 
t<>n  to  drink;  and  on  the  afternoon  of  his  funeral,  I  found 
them  in  the  drawing-room,  four  lank  fellows,  heels  up, 
walking  on  their  hands,  from  long  practice ;  and  the  girl 
informed  me,  that  her  brothers  were  able  so  to  send  the 
little  blood  they  had  in  their  bodies  to  their  brains,  and 
always  felt,  quite  cheerful  for  it,  happy,  and  empowered  to 
deal  with  the  problems  of  the  universe ;  as  they  couldn't  on 
their  legs;  but  she,  poor  thing,  was  forbidden  to  do  the 
same !  And  I'm  like  her.  I  care  for  decorum  too  much  to 
get  the  brain  to  act  on  Colney's  behaviour;  but  I  see  it 
enraptures  him  and  may  be  comprehensible  to  the  topsy- 
turvey." 

Victor  rubbed  hands.  It  was  he  who  filled  Colney's  bag 
of  satiric  spite.  In  addition  to  the  downright  lunacy  of  the 
courting  of  country  society,  by  means  of  the  cajolements 
witnessed  this  day,  a  suspicion  that  Victor  was  wearing  a  false 
face  over  the  signification  of  Jarniman's  visit  and  meant  to 
deceive  the  trustful  and  too-devoted  loving  woman  he  seemed 
bound  to  wreck,  irritated  the  best  of  his  nature.  He  had  a 
resolve  to  pass  an  hour  with  the  couple,  and  speak  and  insist 
on  hearing  plain  words  before  the  night  had  ended.  But 
Fenellan  took  it  out  of  him.  Victor's  show  of  a  perfect  con- 
tentment emulating  Pempton's,  incited  Colney  to  some  of  his 
cunning  rapier-thrusts  with  his  dancing  adversary;  and  the 
heat  which  is  planted  in  us  for  the  composition  of  those  cool 
epigrams,  will  not  allow  plain  words  to  follow.  Or,  handing 
him  over  to  the  police  of  the  Philistines,  you  may  put  it,  that 
a  habit  of  assorting  spices  will  render  an  earnest  simplicity 
distasteful.  He  was  invited  by  Nataly  to  come  home  with 
them  ;  her  wish  for  his  presence,  besides  personal,  was  moved 
by  an  intuition,  that  his  counsel  might  specially  benefit  them, 
lie  shrugged  ;  he  said  he  had  work  at  his  chambers. 

"  Work !  "  Victor  ejaculated  :  he  never  could  reach  to  a 
right  comprehension  of  labour,  in  regard  to  the  very  unre- 
munerative  occupation  of  literature.  Colney  he  did  not  want, 
and  he  let  him  go,  as  Nataly  noticed,  without  a  sign  of  the 
reluctance  he  showed  when  the  others,  including  Fenellan, 
excused  themselves. 


212  ONE   OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"  So !  we're  alone  ?  "  he  said,  when  the  door  of  the  hall  had 
closed  on  them.  He  kept  Nesta  talking  of  the  success  of  the 
day  until  she,  observing  her  mother's  look,  simulated  the 
set  ting-in  of  a  frenzied  yawn.  She  was  kissed,  and  she 
tripped  to  her  bed. 

"  Now  we  are  alone,"  Nataly  said. 

"  Well,  dear,  and  the  day  was,  you  must  own  .  .  ."  he 
sought  to  trifle  with  her  heavy  voice ;  but  she  recalled  him  : 
"Victor!"  and  the  naked  anguish  in  her  cry  of  his  name 
was  like  a  foreign  world  threatening  the  one  he  filled. 

"Ah,  yes;  that  man,  that  Jarniman.  You  saw  him,  I 
remember.  You  recollected  him? — stouter  than  he  was.  In 
her  service  ever  since.  Well,  a  little  drop  of  bitter,  perhaps  : 
no  harm,  tonic." 

"  Victor,  is  she  very  ill?" 

"  My  love,  don't  feel  at  your  side :  she  is  ill,  ill,  not  the 
extreme  case :  not  yet :  old  and  ill.  I  told  Skepsey  to  give 
the  man  refreshment :  he  had  to  do  his  errand." 

"  What  ?  why  did  he  come?  " 

"  Curious ;  he  made  acquaintance  with  Skepsey,  and 
appears  to  have  outwitted  poor  Skepsey,  as  far  as  I  see  it. 
But  if  that  woman  thinks  of  intimidating  me  now  ! — "  His 
eyes  brightened ;  he  had  sprung  from  evasions.  "  Living  in 
flagrant  sin,  she  says :  you  and  I !  She  will  not  have  it ; 
wains  me.  Heard  this  day  at  noon  of  company  at  Lakelands. 
Jarniman  off  at  once.  Are  to  live  in  obscurity ; — you  and 
I !  if  together  !  Dictates  from  her  death-bed  —I  suppose  her 
death-bed." 

"  Dearest,"  Nataly  pressed  hand  on  her  left  breast,  "  may 
we  not  think  that  she  may  be  right  ?  " 

"  An  outrageous  tyranny  of  a  decrepit  woman  naming  her- 
self wife  when  she  is  only  a  limpet  of  vitality,  with  drugs 
for  blood,  hanging-on  to  blast  the  healthy  and  vigorous  !  I 
remember  old  Colney's  once,  in  old  days,  calling  that  kind  of 
marriage  a  sarcophagus.  It  was  to  me.  There  I  lay — see 
myself  lying  !  wasting !  Think  what  you  can  good  of  her, 
by  all  means.  From  her  bed  !  despatches  that  Jarniman  to 
me  from  her  bedside,  with  the  word,  that  she  cannot  in  her 
conscience  allow — what  imposition  was  it  I  practised?  .  .  . 
flagrant  sin? — it  would  have  been  an  infinitely  viler.  .  .  . 
She  is  the  cause  of  suffering  enough:  I  bear  no  more  from 
her;  I've  come  to  the  limit.     She  has  heard  of  Lakelanls: 


CONCERNS    THE   INTRUSION   OF   JARNIMAN.  213 

she  lias  taken  one  of  her  hatreds  to  the  place.  She  might 
have  written,  might  have  sent  me  a  gentleman,  privately. 
No:  it  must  be  done  in  dramatic  style — for  effect:  her  con- 
fidential— lawyer? — doctor?— butler  !  Perhaps  to  frighten 
me: — the  boy  she  knew,  and — poor  soul!  I  don't  mean  to 
abuse  her  :  but  such  conduct  as  this  is  downright  brutal.  I 
laugh  at  it,  I  snap  my  fingers.  I  can  afford  to  despise  it. 
Only  I  do  my  it  deserves  to  be  called  abominable." 

"  Victor,  has  she  used  a  threat  ?  " 

"Am  I  brought  to  listen  to  any  of  her  threats! — Funny 
thing,  I'm  certain,  that  woman  never  can  think  of  me  except 
as  the  boy  she  knew.  I  saw  her  first  when  she  was  first  a 
widow.  She  would  keep  talking  to  me  of  the  seductions  of 
the  metropolis — kept  informing  me  I  was  a  young  man  .  .  . 
shaking  her  head.  I've  told  you.  She — well,  I  know  we  are 
mixtures,  women  as  well  as  men.  I  can,  I  hope,  grant  the 
same — I  believe  I  can — allowances  to  women  as  to  men ;  we 
are  poor  creatures,  all  of  us — in  one  sense  :  though  I  won't 
give  Colney  his  footing;  there's  a  better  way  of  reading  us. 
I  hold  fast  to  Nature.  No  violation  of  Nature,  my  good 
Colney  !  We  can  live  the  lives  of  noble  creatures  ;  and  I  say 
that  happiness  was  meant  for  us : — just  as,  when  you  sit 
down  to  your  dinner,  you  must  do  it  cheerfully,  and  you 
make  good  blood  :  otherwise  all's  wrong.  There's  the  right 
answer  to  Colney  !  But  when  a  woman  like  that  .  .  .  and 
marries  a  boy  :  well,  twenty-one — not  quite  that :  and  an 
innocent,  a  positive  innocent — it  may  seem  incredible,  after  a 
term  of  school-life :  it  was  a  fact :  I  can  hardly  understand 
it  myself  when  I  look  back.  Marries  him  !  And  then  isets 
to  work  to  persecute  him,  because  he  has  blood  in  his  veins, 
because  he  worships  beauty ;  because  he  seeks  a  real  marriage, 
a  real  mate.  And,  I  say  it ! — let  the  world  take  its  own  view, 
the  world  is  wrong  ! — because  he  preferred  a  virtuous  life  to 
the  kind  of  life  she  would,  she  must — why,  necessarily  ! — 
have  driven  him  to,  with  a  mummy's  grain  of  nature  in  his 
body      And  I  am  made  of  flesh,  I  admit  it." 

"Victor,  dearest,  her  threat  concerns  only  your  living  at 
Lakelands." 

"Pray,  don't  speak  excitedly,  my  love,"  he  replied  to  the 
woman  whose  tones  had  been  subdued  to  scarce  more  than 
waver.  "  You  see  how  I  meet  it :  water  off  a  duck's  back  or 
Indian  solar  beams  on  the  skin  of  a  Hindoo  I     1  despise  it — 


214  ONE   OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

hardly  worth  contempt; — But,  come:  our  dav  was  a  good 
one.  Fenellan  worked  well.  Old  C<»lney  was  Colney  Durance, 
of  course.     He  did  no  real  mischief." 

"  And  you  will  not  determine  to  enter  Lakelands — not  yet, 
dear  ?  "  said  Nataly. 

"  My  own  girl,  leave  it  all  to  me." 

"  But,  Victor,  I  must,  must  know." 

"  See  the  case.  You  have  lots  of  courage.  We  can't  with- 
diaw.  Her  intention  is  mischief.  I  believe  the  woman 
keeps  herself  alive  for  it :  we've  given  her  another  lease ! — 
though  it  can  only  be  for  a  very  short  time  ;  Themison  is 
precise ;  Carling  too.  If  we  hold  back — I  have  great  faith 
in  Themison — the  woman's  breath  on  us  is  confirmed.  We 
go  down,  then ;  complete  the  furnishing,  quite  leisurely ; 
accept — listen  — accept  one  or  two  invitations:  impossible  to 
refu.-e  ! — but  they  are  accepted  !  — and  we  defy  her  : — a  crazy 
old  creature :  imagines  herself  the  wife  of  the  ex-Premier, 
widow  of  Prince  Le  Boo,  engaged  to  the  Chinese  Ambassador, 
et  csetera.  Leave  the  tussle  with  that  woman  to  me.  No, 
we  don't  repeat  the  error  of  Craye  Farm  and  Creckholt.  And 
here  we  have  stout  friends.  Not  to  speak  of  Beaves  Urmsing: 
a  picture  of  Old  Christmas  England  !  You  took  to  him  ? — 
must  have  taken  to  Beaves  Urmsing  !  The  Marigolds  !  And 
Sir  Rod  well  and  Lady  Blachington  are  altogether  above  the 
mark  of  Sir  Humphrey  and  Lady  Pottil,  and  those  half  and 
half  Mountneys.  There's  a  warm  centre  of  home  in  Lake- 
lands. But  I  know  my  Nataly  :  she  is  thinking  of  our  girl. 
Here  is  the  plan  :  We  stand  our  ground  :  my  dear  soul  won't 
forsake  me :  only  there's  the  thought  of  Fredi,  in  the  event 
.  .  .  improbable  enough.  I  lift  Fredi  out  of  the  atmosphere 
awhile ;  she  goes  to  my  cousins  the  Duvidney  ladies." 

Nataly  was  hit  by  a  shot.     " Can  you  imagine  it,  Victor?" 

•*  Eegard  it  as  done." 

*'  They  will  surely  decline  ! " 

"  Their  feeling  for  General  Eadnor  is  a  worship." 

*  All  the  more  .  .  .  ? " 

"  The  son  inherits  it.  He  goes  to  them  personally.  Have 
you  ever  known  me  personally  fail  ?  Fredi  stays  at  Moors- 
edge  for  a  month  or  two.  Dorothea  and  Virginia  Duvidney 
will  give  her  a  taste  of  a  new  society ;  good  for  the  girl.  All 
these  little  shiftings  can  be  turned  to  good.  Meantime,  1 
say,  we  stand  our  ground  :  but  you  are  not  to  be  worried ; 


Concerns  the  intrusion  of  jarniman.  215 

for  though  we  havo  gone  too  far  to  recede,  we  need  not  and 
we  will  not  make  the  entry  into  Lakelands  until — you  know: 
that  is,  auspiciously,  to  suit  you  in  every  way.  Thus  I  pro- 
vide to  meet  contingencies.  What  one  may  really  fancy  is, 
that  the  woman  did  but  threaten.  There's  her  point  of  view 
to  be  considered  :  silly,  crazy ;  but  one  sees  it.  We  are  not 
sure  that  she  struck  a  blow  at  Craye  or  Creckholt.  I  wonder 
she  never  wrote.  She  was  frightened,  when  she  came  to 
manage  her  property,  of  signing  her  name  to  anything. 
Absurd,  that  sending  of  Jarniman  !  However,  it's  her  move ; 
we  make  a  corresponding  disposition  of  our  chessmen." 

"  And  I  am  to  lose  my  Nesta  for  a  month  ?  "  Nafaly  said, 
after  catching  here  and  there  at  the  fitful  gleams  of  truce  or 
comfort  dropped  from  his  words.  And  simultaneously,  the 
reproach  of  her  mind  to  her  nature  for  again  and  so  constantly 
yielding  to  the  domination  of  his  initiative — unable  to  find 
the  words,  even  the  ideas,  to  withstand  him, — brought  big 
tears.  Angry  at  herself  both  for  the  internal  feebleness  and 
the  exhibition  of  it,  she  blinked  and  begged  excuse.  There 
might  be  nothing  that  should  call  her  to  resist  him.  She 
could  not  do  much  worse  than  she  had  done  to-day.  The 
reflection,  that  to-day  she  had  been  actually  sustained  by  the 
expectation  of  a  death  to  come,  diminished  her  estimate  of 
to-morrow's  burden  on  her  endurance,  in  making  her  seem  a 
less  criminal  woman,  who  would  have  no  such  expectation  : 
— which  was  virtually  a  stab  at  a  fellow  creature's  future. 
Her  head  was  acute  to  work  in  the  direction  of  the  casuistries 
and  the  sensational  webs  and  films.  Facing  Victor,  it  was  a 
block. 

But  the  thought  came :  how  could  she  meet  those  people 
about  Lakelands,  without  support  of  the  recent  guilty  whis- 
pers !  She  said  coldly,  her  heart  shaking  her :  "  You  think 
there  has  been  a  recovery  ?  " 

"  Invalids  are  up  and  down.  They  are — well,  no ;  I  should 
think  she  dreads  the  ..."  he  kept  "surgeon"  out  of  hearing. 
"Or  else  she  means  this  for  the  final  stroke:  'though  I'm 
lying  here,  I  can  still  make  him  feel.'  That,  or — poor  woman 
— si  e  has  her  notions  of  right  and  wrong." 

"  Could  we  not  now  travel  for  a  few  weeks,  Victor  ?  " 

"  Certainly,  dear  ;  we  will,  after  we  have  kept  our  engage- 
ments to  dine — I  accepted — with  the  Blathenoys,  the  Blao)  • 
ingtons,  Beaves  Urmsing." 


216  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS.     ■ 

Nataly's  vision  of  the  peaceful  lost  little  dairy  cottage 
swelled  to  brilliance,  like  the  large  tear  at  the  fall;  darken- 
ing under  her  present  effort  to  comprehend  the  necessity  it 
was  for  him  to  mix  and  be  foremost  with  the  world.  Unable 
to  grasp  it  perfectly,  in  mind,  her  compassionate  love 
embraced  it :  she  blamed  herself,  for  being  the  obstruction 
to  him. 

"  Very  well,"  she  said  on  a  sigh.  "  Then  we  shall  not 
have  to  let  our  girl  go  from  us  ?  " 

"  Just  a  few  weeks.  In  the  middle  of  dinner,  I  scribbled 
a  telegram  to  the  Duvidneys,  for  Skepsey  to  take." 

"  Speaking  of  Nesta?" 

"  Of  my  coming  to-morrow.  They  won't  stop  me.  I  dine 
with  them,  sleep  at  the  Wells ;  hotel  for  a  night.  We  are 
to  be  separated  for  a  night." 

She  laid  her  hand  in  his  and  gave  him  a  passing  view  of 
her  face :  "  For  two,  dear.  I  am  .  .  .  that  man's  visit — 
rather  shaken  :  I  shall  have  a  better  chance  of  sleeping  if 
I  know  I  am  not  disturbing  you." 

She  was  firm  ;  and  they  kissed  and  parted.  Each  had  an 
unphrased  speculation  upon  the  power  of  Mrs.  Burnian  to 
put  division  between  them. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

TREATS   OF   THE   LADIES'    LAPD0G    TASSO   FOR   ANT   INSTANCE   OF 
MOMENTOUS   EFFECTS   PRODUCED    BY    VERY    MINOR   CAUSES. 

The  maiden  ladies  Dorothea  and  Virginia  Duvidney  were 
thin-sweet  old  fashioned  grey  gentlewomen,  demurely  con- 
scious of  their  excellence  and  awake  to  the  temptation  in  the 
consciousness,  who  imposed  a  certain  reflex  primness  on  the 
lips  of  the  world  when  addressing  them  or  when  alluding  to 
them.  For  their  appearance  was  picturesque  of  the  ances- 
tral time,  and  their  ideas  and  scrupulousness  of  delivery 
suggested  the  belated  in  ripeness;  orchard  apples  under  a 
snow-storm ;  or  any  image  that  will  ceremoniously  convey 
the  mind's  profound  appreciation  together  with  the  tooth's 
pai-ic  dread  of  tartness.    They  were  by  no  means  tart;  only, 


THE   LADIES     LAPDO 


as  you  know,  the  tooth  is  apprehensively  nervous ;  an  un- 
inviting sign  will  set  it  on  edge.  Even  the  pen  which 
would  sketch  them  has  a  spell  on  it  and  must  don  its  coat 
of  office,  walk  the  liveried  footman  behind  them. 

Their  wealth,  their  deeds  of  charity,  their  modesty,  their 
built  grey  locks,  their  high  repute ;  a  "  Chippendale  ele- 
gance "  iii  a  quaintly  formal  correctness,  that  they  had,  as 
Colney  Durance  called  it ;  gave  them  some  queenliness,  and 
allowed  them  to  claim  the  ear  as  an  oracle  and  banish 
rebellious  argument.  Intuitive  knowledge,  assisted  by  the 
Eev.  Stuart  Hem.  and  the  Eev.  Abram  Posterley,  enabled 
them  to  pronounce  upon  men  and  things ;  not  without 
effect;  their  country  owned  it;  the  foreigner  beheld  it. 
Nor  were  they  corrupted  by  the  servility  of  the  surrounding 
ear.  They  were  good  women,  striving  to  be  humbly  good. 
They  might,  for  all  the  little  errors  they  nightly  unrolled 
to  their  perceptions,  have  stood  before  the  world  for  a  study 
in  the  white  of  our  humanity.  And  this  may  be  but  a 
washed  wall,  it  is  true  :  revolutionary  sceptics  are  measuring 
the  depths  of  it.  But  the  hue  refreshes,  the  world  admires; 
and  we  know  it  an  object  of  aim  to  the  bettermost  of  the 
wealthy.  If,  happily,  complacent  circumstances  have  lifted 
us  to  the  clean  paved  platform  out  of  grip  of  puddled  clay 
and  bespattering  wheeltracks,  we  get  our  chance  of  coming 
to  it. 

Possessing,  for  example,  nine  thousand  pounds  per  annum 
in  Consols,  and  not  expending  the  whole  of  it  upon  our 
luxuries,  we  are,  without  further  privation,  near  to  kindling 
the  world's  enthusiasm  for  whiteness.  Yet  there,  too,  we 
find,  that  character  has  its  problems  to  solve;  there  are 
shades  in  salt.  We  must  be  charitable,  but  we  should  be 
just ;  we  give  to  the  poor  of  the  land,  but  we  are  eminently 
the  friends  of  our  servants  ;  duty  to  mankind  diverts  us  not 
from  the  love  we  bear  to  our  dog ;  and  with  a  pathetic 
sorrow  for  sin,  we  discard  it  from  sight  and  hearing.  We 
hate  dirt.  Having  said  so  much,  having  shown  it,  by  sealing 
the  mouth  of  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  and  iceing  the  veins  of  Mr. 
Abram  Posterley,  in  relation  to  a  dreadful  public  case  and 
a  melancholy  private,  we  have  a  pleased  sense  of  entry  into 
the  world's  ideal. 

At  the  same  time,  we  protest  our  un worthiness.  Ac- 
knovvledgeing   that   they   were   not   purely  spotless,    these 


218  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

ladies  genuinely  took  the  tiny  fly-spot  for  a  spur  to  puri- 
fication ;  and  they  viewed  it  as  a  patch  to  raise  in  relief 
their  goodness.  They  gazed  on  it*  saw  themselves  in  it, 
and  veiled  it :  warned  of  the  cunning  of  au  oft-defeated 
Tempter. 

To  do  good  and  sleep  well,  was  their  sowing  and  their 
reaping.  Uneasy  consciences  could  not  have  slept.  The 
sleeping  served  for  proof  of  an  accurate  reckoning  and  an 
expungeing  of  the  day's  debits.  They  differed  in  opinion 
now  and  then,  as  we  see  companion  waves  of  the  river, 
blown  by  a  gust,  roll  a  shadow  between  them ;  and  almost 
equally  transient  were  their  differences  with  a  world  that 
they  condemned  when  they  could  not  feel  they  (as  an 
embodiment  of  tlieir  principles)  were  leading  it.  The 
English  world  at  times  betrayed  a  restiveness  in  the  walled 
pathway  of  virtue ;  for,  alas,  it  closely  neighbours  the 
French;  only  a  Channel,  often  dangerously  smooth,  to 
divide :  but  it  is  not  perverted  for  long ;  and  the  English 
Funds  are  always  constant  and  a  tower.  Would  they  be 
suffered  to  be  so,  if  libertinism  were  in  the  ascendant? 

Colney  Durance  was  acquainted  with  the  Duvidney  ladies. 
Hearing  of  the  journey  to  them  and  the  purport  of  it,  he 
said,  with  the  mask  upon  glee :  "  Then  Victor  Las  met  his 
match ! "  Nataly  had  sent  for  him  to  dine  with  her  in 
Victor's  absence :  she  was  far  from  grieved,  as  to  the  result, 
by  his  assurance  to  her,  that  Victor  had  not  a  chance.  Colney 
thought  so.  "  Just  like  him  !  to  be  off  gaily  to  try  and  over- 
come or  come  over  the  greatest  power  in  England."  They 
were  England  herself;  the  squat  old  woman  she  has  become 
by  reason  of  her  overlapping  numbers  of  the  comfortable 
fund-holder  annuitants:  a  vast  body  of  passives  and  nega- 
tives, living  by  precept,  according  to  rules  of  precedent,  and 
supposing  themselves  to  be  righteously  guided  because  of 
their  continuing  undisturbed.  Them  he  branded,  as  hypo- 
critical materialists,  and  the  country  for  pride  in  her  sweet- 
meat plethora  of  them  : — mixed  with  an  ancient  Hebrew  fear 
of  offence  to  an  inscrutable  Lord,  eccentrically  appeasable 
through  the  dreary  iteration  of  the  litany  of  sinfulness.  He 
was  near  a  truth ;  and  he  had  the  heat  of  it  on  him. 

Satirists  in  their  fervours  might  be  near  it  to  grasp  it,  if 
they  could  be  moved  to  moral  distinctness,  mental  intention, 
with  a  preference  of  strong  plain  speech  over  the  crack  of 


THE   LADIES'   LAPDOG   TASSO.  219 

their  whips.  Colney  could  not  or  would  not  praise  our 
modern  adventurous,  experimental,  heroic,  tramping  active, 
as  opposed'  to  yonder  pursy  passives  and  negatives ;  he  had 
occasions  for  nicking  the  fellow  sharply  :  and  to  speak  of  tlie 
Lord  as  our  friend  present  with  us,  palpable  to  Eeason, 
perceptible  to  natural  piety  solely  through  the  reason,  which 
justifies  punishment ;  that  would  have  stopped  his  mouth 
upon  the  theme  of  God-forsaken  creatures.  Our  satirist  is 
an  executioner  by  profession,  a  moralist  in  excuse,  or  at  the 
tail  of  it ;  though  he  thinks  the  position  reversed,  when  he 
moralizes  angrily  to  have  his  angry  use  of  the  scourge  con- 
doned. Nevertheless,  he  fills  a  serviceable  place ;  and 
certainly  he  is  not  happy  in  his  business.  Colney  suffered 
as  heavily  as  he  struck.  If  he  had  been  no  more  than  a 
mime  in  the  motley  of  satire,  he  would  have  sucked  com- 
pensation from  the  acid  of  his  phrases,  for  the  failure  to 
prick  and  goad,  and  work  amendment. 

He  dramatized  to  JNataly  some  of  the  scene  going  on  at  the 
"Wells :  Victor's  petition ;  his  fugue  in  urgency  of  it ;  the 
brief  reply  of  Miss  Dorothea  and  her  muted  echo  Miss 
Virginia.  He  was  rather  their  apologist  for  refusing.  But, 
as  when,  after  himself  listening  to  their  'views,'  he  had 
deferentially  withdrawn  from  the  ladies  of  Moorsedge,  and 
had  then  beheld  their  strangely-hatted  lieutenants  and  the 
regiments  of  the  toneless  respectable  on  the  pantiles  and  the 
mounts,  the  curse  upon  the  satirist  impelled  him  to  gene- 
ralize. The  quiet  good  ladies  were  multiplied :  they  were 
"the  thousands  of  their  sisters,  petticoated  or  long-coated 
or  buck-skinned;  comfortable  annuitants  under  clerical 
shepherding,  close  upon  outnumbering  the  labourers  they 
paralyze  at  home  and  stultify  abroad."  Colney  thumped 
away.  The  country's  annuitants  had  for  type  "the  figure 
with  the  helmet  of  the  Owl-Goddess  and  the  trident  of  the 
Earth-shaker,  seated  on  a  wheel,  at  the  back  of  penny- 
pieces;  in  whom  you  see  neither  the  beauty  of  nakedness 
nor  the  charm  of  drapery ;  not  the  helmet's  dignity  or  the 
trident's  power ;  but  she  has  patently  that  which  stops  the 
wheel;  and  poseing  for  representative  of  an  imperial  nation, 
she  helps  to  pass  a  penny."  So  he  passed  his  epigram,  heed- 
less of  the  understanding  or  attention  of  his  hearer;  who 
temporarily  misjudged  him  for  a  man  impelled  by  the  vanity 
of  literary  point  and  finish,  when  indeed  it  was  hot  satiric 


220  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

spite,  justified  of  its  aim,  which  crushed  a  class  to  extract 
a  drop  of  scathing  acid,  in  the  interests  of  the  country, 
mankind  as  well.  Nataly  wanted  a  picture  painted,  colours 
and  details,  that  she  might  get  a  vision  of  the  scene  at 
Moorsedge.  She  did  her  best  to  feel  an  omen  and  sound 
it,  in  his  question  "whether  the  yearly  increasing  army  of 
the  orderly  annuitants  and  their  parasites  does  not  demon- 
strate the  proud  old  country  as  a  sheath  for  pith  rather  than 
of  the  vital  run  of  sap."  Perhaps  it  was  patriotic  to  inquire; 
and  doubtless  she  was  the  weakest  of  women ;  she  could 
follow  no  thought;  her  heart  was  beating  blindly  beside 
Victor,  hopeing  for  the  refusal  painful  to  her  through  his 
disappointment. 

"  You  think  me  foolish,"  she  made  answer  to  one  of  Colney's 
shrugs ;  ••  and  it  has  come  to  that  pitch  with  me,  that  I  can- 
not be  sensible  of  a  merit  except  in  being  one  with  him — 
obeying,  is  the  word.  And  I  have  never  yet  known  him  fail. 
That  terrible  Lakelands  wears  a  different  look  to  me,  when 
I  think  of  what  he  can  do;  though  I  would  give  half  my 
days  to  escape  it." 

She  harped  on  the  chord  of  feverish  extravagance  ;  the 
more  hateful  to  Colney  because  of  his  perceiving,  that  she 
simulated  a  blind  devotedness  to  stupefy  her  natural  pride ; 
and  he  was  divided  between  stamping  on  her  for  an  imbecile 
and  dashing  at  Victor  for  a  maniac.  But  her  situation 
rendered  her  pitiable.  •*  You  will  learn  to-morrow  what 
Victor  has  done,"  he  said,  and  thought  how  the  simple  words 
carried  the  bitterness. 

That  was  uttered  within  a  few  minutes  of  midnight,  when 
the  ladies  of  Moorsedge  themselves,  after  an  exhausting 
resistance  to  their  dearest  relative,  were  at  the  hall-door  of 
the  house  with  Victor,  saying  the  good-night,  to  which  he 
responded  hurriedly,  cordially,  dumbly,  a  baffled  man.  They 
clasped  hands.  Miss  Dorothea  said :  "  You,  Victor,  always. 
Miss  Virginia  said :  "  You  will  be  sure  of  welcome."  He 
walked  out  upon  the  moonless  night;  and  for  lack  of  any 
rounded  object  in  the  smothering  darkness  to  look  at,  he 
could  nowhere  take  moorings  to  gather  himself  together  and 
define  the  man  who  had  undergone  so  portentous  a  defeat. 
He  was  glad  of  quarters  at  an  hotel,  a  solitary  bed,  absence 
from  his  Nataly. 

For  their  parts,  the  ladies  were  not  less  shattered.     They 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso.  221 

had  no  triumph  in  their  victory  :  the  weight  of  it  bore  them 
down.  They  closed,  locked,  shot  the  bolts  and  fastened  the 
chain  of  the  door.  They  had  to  be  reminded  by  the  shaking 
of  their  darling  dog  Tasso's  curly  silky  coat,  that  he  had  not 
taken  his  evening's  trot  to  notify  malefactors  of  his  watchful- 
ness and  official  wrath  at  sound  of  footfall  or  a  fancied  one. 
Without  consultation,  they  unbolted  the  door,  and  Tasso 
went  forth,  to  "  compose  his  vesper  hymn,"  as  Mr.  Posterley 
once  remarked  amusingly.  Though  not  pretending  to  the 
Muse's  crown  so  far,  the  little  dog  had  qualities  to  entrance 
the  spinster  sex.  His  mistresses  talked  of  him ;  of  his  readi- 
ness to  go  forth ;  of  the  audible  first  line  of  his  hymn  or  sonnet ; 
of  his  instinct  telling  him  that  something  was  wrong  in 
the  establishment.  For  most  of  the  servants  at  Moorsedge 
were  prostrated  by  a  fashionable  epidemic;  a  slight  attack, 
the  doctor  said  ;  but  Montague,  the  butler,  had  withdrawn 
for  the  nursing  of  his  wife ;  Perrin,  the  footman,  was  confined 
to  his  chamber ;  Manton,  the  favourite  maid,  had  appeared 
in  the  morning  with  a  face  that  caused  her  banishment  to 
bed  ;  and  the  cook,  Mrs.  Bannister,  then  sighingly  agreed  to 
send  up  cold  meat  for  the  ladies'  dinner.  Hence  their 
melancholy  inhospitality  to  their  cousin  Victor,  who  had,  in 
spite  of  his  errors,  the  right  to  claim  his  place  at  their  table, 
was  "of  the  blood,"  they  said.  He  was  recognized  as  the 
living  prince  of  it.  His  every  gesture,  every  word,  recalled 
the  General.  The  trying  scene  with  him  had  withered  them, 
they  did  not  speak  of  it ;  each  had  to  the  other  the  look  of  a 
vessel  that  has  come  out  of  a  gale.  Would  they  sleep  ?  They 
scarcely  dared  ask  it  of  themselves.  They  had  done  rightly ; 
silence  upon  that  reflection  seemed  best.  It  was  the  silence 
of  an  inward  agitation  ;  still  they  knew  the  power  of  good 
consciences  to  summon  sleep. 

Tasso  was  usually  timed  for  five  minutes.  They  were 
astonished  to  discover  by  the  clock,  that  they  had  given  him 
ten.  He  was  very  quiet :  if  so,  and  for  whatever  he  did,  he 
had  his  reason,  they  said :  lie  was  a  dog  endowed  with 
reason  :  endowed — and  how  they  wished  that  Mr.  Stuart 
Kem  would  admit  it! — with,  their  love  of  the  little  dog 
believed  (and  Mr.  Posterley  acquiesced),  a  soul.  Do  but 
tuink  it  of  dear  animals,  and  any  form  of  cruelty  to  them 
becomes  an  impossibility,  Mr.  Stuart  Kem !  But  he  would 
not    be   convinced :    ungenerously   indeed    he    named    Mr, 


222  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Posferley  a  courtier.  The  ladies  could  have  retorted,  that 
Mr.  Posterley  had  not  a  brother  who  was  the  celebrated 
surgeon  Sir  Nicholas  Eem. 

Usually  Tasso  came  running  in  when  the  hall-door  was 
opened  to  him.  Not  a  sound  of  him  could  be  heard.  The 
ladies  blew  his  familiar  whistle.  He  trotted  back  to  a  third 
appeal,  and  was,  unfortunately  for  them,  not  caressed;  he 
received  reproaches  from  two  forefingers  directed  straight  at 
his  reason.  He  saw  it  and  felt  it.  The  hug  of  him  was 
deferred  to  the  tender  good-night  to  him  in  his  basket  at  the 
foot  of  the  ladies'  beds. 
r  On  entering  their  spacious  bed-chamber,  they  were  so 
fatigued  that  sleep  appeared  to  their  minds  the  compensat- 
ing logical  deduction.  Miss  Dorothea  suppressed  a  yawn, 
and  inflicted  it  upon  Miss  Virginia,  who  returned  it,  with  an 
apology,  and  immediately  had  her  sister's  hand  on  her 
shoulder,  for  an  attempted  control  of  one  of  the  irresistibles ; 
a  spectacle  imparting  bitter  shudders  and  shots  to  the 
sympathetic  jawbones  of  an  observer.  Hand  at  mouth,  for 
not  in  privacy  would  they  have  been  guilty  of  exposing 
a  grimace,  they  signified,  under  an  interim  smile,  their 
maidenly  submission  to  the  ridiculous  force  of  nature :  after 
which,  Miss  Virginia  retired  to  the  dressing-room,  absorbed 
in  woeful  recollection  of  the  resolute  No  they  had  been 
compelled  to  reiterate,  in  response  to  the  most  eloquent  and, 
saving  for  a  single  instance,  admirable  man,  their  cousin, 
the  representative  of  'the  blood,'  supplicating  them.  A 
recreant  thankfulness  coiled  within  her  bosom  at  the  thought, 
that  Dorothea,  true  to  her  office  of  speaker,  had  tasked  her- 
self with  the  cruel  utterance  and  repetition  of  the  word. 
Victor's  wonderful  eyes,  his  voice,  yet  more  than  his  urgent 
pleas ;  and  also,  in  the  midst  of  his  fiery  flood  of  speech,  his 
gentleness,  his  patience,  pathos,  and  a  man's  tone  through  it 
all ;  were  present  to  her. 

Disrobed,  she  knocked  at  the  door. 

•*  I  have  called  to  you  twice,"  Dorothea  said  ;  and  she  looked 
a  motive  for  the  call. 

"  What  is  it  ? "  said  Virginia,  with   faltering   sweetness, 
with  a  terrible  divination. 

The  movement  of  a  sigh  was  made.     "  Are  you  aware  of 
anything,  dear?" 

Virginia  was  taken  with  the  contrary  movement  of  a  snif£ 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso.  223 

Bat  the  fear  informing  it  prevented  it  from  being  venture- 
some. Doubt  of  the  pure  atmosphere  of  their  bed-chamber, 
appeared  to  her  as  too  heretic  even  for  tho  positive  essay. 
In  affirming,  that  she  was  not  aware  of  anything,  her  sight 
fell  on  Tasso.  His  eyeballs  were  those  of  a  little  dog  that 
has  been  awfully  questioned. 

"  It  is  more  than  a  suspicion,"  said  Dorothea ;  and  plainly 
now,  while  open  to  the  seductions  of  any  pleasing  infidel 
testimony,  her  nose  in  repugnance  convicted  him  absolutely. 

Virginia's  nose  was  lowered  a  few  inches ;  it  inhaled  and 
stopped  midway*  "  You  must  be  mistaken,  dear.  He 
never  ..." 

"  But  are  you  insensible  to  the  ..."  Dorothea's  eyelids 
fainted. 

Virginia  dismissed  the  forlornest  of  efforts  at  incredulity. 
A  whiff  of  Tasso  had  smitten  her.  "Ah!"  she  exclaimed 
and  fell  away.  "  Is  it  Tasso !  How  was  it  you  noticed 
nothing  before  undressing,  dear?" 

"  Thinking  of  what  we  have  gone  through  to-night !  I 
forgot  him.  At  last  the  very  strange.  .  .  .  The  like  of  it  I 
have  not  ever  !  .  .  .  And  upon  that  thick  coat !  And,  dear, 
it  is  late.     We  are  in  the  morning  hours." 

"  But,  my  dear — Oh,  dear,  what  is  to  be  done  with  him?" 

That  was  the  crucial  point  for  discussion.  They  had  no 
servant  to  give  them  aid ;  Manton,  they  could  not  dream  oi 
disturbing,  And  Tasso's  character  was  in  the  estimate;  he 
hated  washing  j  it  balefully  depraved  his  temper ;  and  not 
only,  creature  of  habit  that  he  was,  would  he  decline  to  lie 
down  anywhere  save  in  their  bedroom,  he  would  lament, 
plead,  insist  unremittingly,  if  excluded ;  terrifying  every 
poor  invalid  of  the  house.  Then  again,  were  they  at  this 
late  hour  to  dress  themselves,  and  take  him  downstairs,  and 
light  a  fire  in  the  kitchen,  and  boil  sufficient  water  to  give 
him  a  bath  and  scrubbing  ?  Cold  water  would  be  death  to 
him.  Besides,  he  would  ring  out  his  alarum  for  the  house 
to  hear,  pour  out  all  his  poetry,  poor  dear,  as  Mr.  Poster  ley 
called  it,  at  a  touch  of  cold  water.  The  catastrophe  was  one 
to  weep  over,  the  dilemma  a  trial  of  the  strongest  intelligences, 

In  addition  to  reviews  of  their  solitary  alternative — the 
having  of  a  fouled  degraded  little  dog  in  their  chamber 
through  the  night,  they  were  subjected  to  a  conflict  of 
emotions  when  eyeing   him:   and  there  came   to   them  the 


224  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

painful,  perhaps  irreverent,  perhaps  uncharitable,  thought : 
■ — that  the  sinner  who  has  rolled  in  the  abominable,  must 
cleanse  him  and  do  things  to  polish  him  and  perfume  before 
again  embraced  even  by  the  mind :  if  indeed  we  can  ever 
have  our  old  sentiment  for  him  again  !  Mr.  Stuart  Rem 
might  decide  it  for  them.  Nay,  before  even  the  heart 
embraces  him,  he  must  completely  purify  himself.  That  is 
to  say,  the  ordinary  human  sinner — save  when  a  relative. 
Contemplating  Tasso,  the  hearts  of  the  ladies  gushed  out  in 
pity  of  an  innocent  little  dog,  knowing  not  evil,  dependent 
on  his  friends  for  help  to  be  purified; — necessarily  kept  at  a 
distance  :  the  very  look  of  him  prescribed  extreme  separation, 
as  far  as  practicable.  But  they  had  proof  of  a  love  almost 
greater  than  it  was  previous  to  the  offence,  in  the  tender 
precautions  they  took  to  elude  repulsion. 

He  was  rolling  on  the  rug,  communicating  contagion. 
Flasks  of  ti  eble-distilled  lavender  water,  and  their  favourite, 
traditional  in  the  family,  eau  d' Arquebusade,  were  on  the 
toilet-table.  They  sprinkled  his  basket,  liberally  sprinkled 
the  rug  and  the  little  dog.  Perfume-pastilles  were  in  one 
of  the  sitting-rooms  below ;  and  Virginia  would  have  gone 
down  softly  to  fetch  a  box,  but  Dorothea  restrained  her,  in 
pity  for  the  servants,  with  the  remark :  "  It  would  give  us 
a  nightmare  of  a  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral ! "  A  bit  of  the 
window  was  lifted  by  Dorothea,  cautiously,  that  prowling 
outsiders  might  not  be  attracted.  Tasso  was  wooed  to  his 
basket.  He  seemed  inquisitive ;  the  antidote  of  his  naughti- 
ness excited  him;  his  tail  circled  after  his  muzzle  several 
times ;  then  he  lay.  A  silken  scarf  steeped  in  eau  d'Arque- 
busade  was  flung  across  him. 

Their  customary  devout  observances  concluded,  lights 
were  extinguished,  and  the  ladies  kissed,  and  entered  their 
beds.  Their  beds  were  not  homely  to  them.  Dorothea 
thought  that  Virginia  was  long  in  settling  herself.  Virginia 
did  not  like  the  sound  of  Dorothea's  double  sigh.  Both 
listened  anxiously  for  the  doings  of  Tasso.     He 'rested. 

He  was  uneasy ;  he  was  rounding  his  basket  once  more ; 
unaware  of  the  exaggeration  of  his  iniquitous  conduct,  poor 
innocent,  he  shook  that  dreadtul  coat  of  his!  He  had 
displaced  the  prophylactic  cover  of  the  scarf. 

He  drove  them  in  a  despair  to  speculate  on  the  contention 
between  the  perfume  and  the  stench  in  junction,  with  such 


THE  ladies'  lapdog  tasso.  225 

a  doubt  of  the  victory  of  which  of  the  two,  as  drags  us  to 
fear  our  worst.  It  steals  into  our  nostrils,  possesses  them. 
As  the  History  of  Mankind  has  informed  us,  we  were  led  up 
to  our  civilization  by  the  nose.  But  Philosophy  warns  us 
on  that  eminence,  to  beware  of  trusting  exclusively  to  our 
conductor,  lest  the  mind  of  us  at  least  be  plunged  back  into 
barbarism.  The  ladies  hated  both  the  cause  and  the  con- 
sequence, they  had  a  revulsion  from  the  object,  of  the  above 
contention.  But  call  it  not  a  contention  :  there  is  nobility 
in  that.  This  was  a  compromise,  a  degrading  union,  with 
very  sickening  results.  Whether  they  came  of  an  excess  of 
the  sprinkling,  could  not  well  be  guessed.  The  drenching 
at  least  was  righteously  intended. 

Beneath  their  shut  eyelids,  they  felt  more  and  more  the 
oppression  of  a  darkness  not  laden  with  slumber.  They  saw 
it  in  solidity ;  themselves  as  restless  billows,  driven  dashing 
to  the  despondent  sigh.     Sleep  was  denied  them. 

Tasso  slept.  He  had  sinned  unknowingly,  and  that  is  not 
a  spiritual  sin ;  the  chastisement  confers  the  pardon. 

But  why  was  this  ineffable  blessing  denied  to  them? 
Was  it  that  they  might  have  a  survey  of  all  the  day's  deeds 
and  examine  them  under  the  cruel  black  beams  of  Insomnia  ? 

Virginia  said :  "  You  are  wakeful." 

"  Thoughtful,"  was  the  answer. 

A  century  of  the  midnight  rolled  on. 

Dorothea  said  :  "  He  behaved  very  beautifully." 

"  I  looked  at  the  General's  portrait  while  he  besought  us,w 
Virginia  replied. 

*«  One  sees  him  in  Victor,  at  Victor's  age.     Try  to  sleep." 

"  I  do.     I  pray  that  you  may." 

Silence  courted  slumber.  Their  interchange  of  speech 
from  the  posture  of  bodies  on  their  backs,  had  been  low  and 
deliberate,  in  the  tone  of  the  vaults.  Dead  silence  recalled 
the  strangeness  of  it.  The  night  was  breathless ;  their  open 
window  a  peril  bestowing  no  boon.  They  were  mutually 
haunted  by  sound  of  the  gloomy  query  at  the  nostrils  of 
t-ach  when  drawing  the  vital  breath.  But  for  that,  they 
thought  they  might  have  slept. 

Bed  spake  to  bed  : 

•*  The  words  of  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  last  Sunday ! " 

"  He  said  :  '  Be  just.'     Could  one  but  see  direction ! " 

"  In  obscurity,  feeling  is  a  guide," 


226  ONE   OF   OUB    CONQUERORS. 

"The  heart." 

"  It  may  sometimes  be  followed." 

"  When  it  concerns  the  family." 

"  He  would  have  the  living,  who  are  seeking  peace, 
just," 

"  Not  to  assume  the  seat  of  justice." 

Again  they  lay  as  tombstone  effigies,  that  have  committed 
the  passage  of  affairs  to  another  procession  of  the  Ages. 

There  was  a  gentle  sniff,  in  hopeless  confirmation  of  the 
experience  of  its  predecessors.     A  sister  to  it  ensued. 

"  Could  Victor  have  spoken  so,  without  assurance  in  his 
conscience,  that  his  entreaty  was  righteously  addressed  to 
us  ?  that  we  .  .  ." 

"  And  no  others !  " 

"  I  think  of  his  language.     He  loves  the  child." 

M  In  heart  as  in  mind,  he  is  eminently  gifted ;  acknow- 
ledgeing  error." 

•■'  He  was  very  young." 

The  huge  funereal  minutes  conducted  their  sonorous 
hearse,  the  hour. 

It  struck  in  the  bed-room  Three. 

No  more  than  three  of  the  clock,  it  was  the  voice  telling 
of  half  the  precious  restorative  nighthours  wasted. 

Now,  as  we  close  our  eyelids  when  we  would  go  to  sleep, 
so  must  we,  in  expectation  of  the  peace  of  mind  granting  us 
the  sweet  oblivion,  preliminarily  do  something  wThich  in- 
vokes, that  we  may  obtain  it. 

"Dear,"  Dorothea  said. 

"1  know  indeed,"  said  Virginia. 

*•  We  may  have  been  I " 

"  Not  designingly." 

"  Indeed  not.  But  harsh  it  may  be  named,  if  the  one 
innocent  is  to  be  the  sufferer." 

"  The  child  can  in  no  sense  be  adjudged  guilty." 

"It  is  Victor's  child." 

"He  adores  the  child." 

Wheels  were  in  mute  motion  within  them  ;  and  presently 
the  remark  was  tossed-up  : 

"  In  his  coming  to  us,  it  is  possible  to  see  paternal 
solicitude." 

Thence  came  fruit  of  reflection  : 

"  To  be  instrumental  as  guides  to  a  tender  young  life ! " 


THE    LADIES*    LAPDOG    TASSO.  227 

Reflection  heated  with  visions : 

"  Once  our  dream  ! " 

They  had  the  happier  feeling  of  composure,  though  Tasso 
possessed  the  room.  Not  Tasso,  but  a  sublimated  offensive- 
ness,  issue  of  the  antagonistically  combined,  dispersed  to  be 
the  more  penetrating;  insomuch  that  it  seemed  to  them 
they  could  not  ever  again  make  use  of  eau  cT Arquebusade 
without  the  vitiating  reminder.  So  true  were  the  words  of 
Mr.  Stuart  Kem:  'Half  measures  to  purification  are  the 
most  delusive  of  our  artifices.'  Fatigue  and  its  reflections 
helped  to  be  peacefuller.  Their  souls  were  mounting  to  a 
serenitj^  above  the  nauseating  degradation,  to  which  the 
poor  little  dog  had  dragged  them. 

"  Victor  gave  his  promise." 

"  At  least,  concession  would  not  imply  contact  with  the 
guilty."  ^ 

Both  sighed  as  they  took-up  the  burden  of  the  vaporous 
Tasso  to  drop  him ;  with  the  greater  satisfaction  in  the 
expelling  of  their  breath. 

"  It  might  be  said,  dear,  that  concession  to  his  entreaty 
does  not  in  any  way  countenance  the  sin." 

"  I  can  see,  dear,  how  it  might  be  read  as  a  reproof." 

Their  exchange  of  sentences  followed  meditative  pauses ; 
Dorothea  leading. 

M  To  one  so  sensitive  as  Victor !  " 

"  A  month  or  two  of  our  society  for  the  child  I  " 

"  It  is  not  the  length  of  time." 

"  The  limitation  assures  against  maternal  claims." 

"  She  would  not  dare." 

"  He  used  the  words :  '  her  serious  respect '  for  us.  I 
should  not  wish  to  listen  to  him  often." 

"  We  listen  to  a  higher." 

"  It  may  really  be,  that  the  child  is  like  him." 

"Not  resembling  Mr.  Stuart  Rem's  Clementina !  " 

"  A  week  of  that  child  gave  us  our  totally  sleepless  night." 

"  One  thinks  more  hopefully  of  a  child  of  Victor's." 

"  He  would  preponderate." 

"  He  would." 

They  sighed ;  but  it  was  now  with  the  relief  of  a  lightened 
oppression. 

"  If,  dear,  in  truth  the  father's  look  is  in  the  child,  he  has  the 
greater  reason  to  desire  for  her  a  taste  of  our  atmosphere." 


228  ONE   OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"  Do  not  pursue  it.     Sleep." 

"  One  prayer  !  " 

"Your  mention  of  our  atmosphere,  dear,  destroys  my 
power  to  frame  one.  Do  you,  for  two.  But  I  would  cleanse 
my  heart." 

"  There  is  none  purer." 

"  Hush." 

Virginia  spoke  a  more  fervent  word  of  praise  of  her  sister, 
and  had  not  the  hushing  response  to  it.  She  heard  the  soft 
regular  breathing.  Her  own  was  in  downy  fellowship  with 
it  a  moment  later. 

At  the  hour  of  nine,  in  genial  daylight,  sitting  over  the 
crumbs  of  his  hotel  breakfast,  Victor  received  a  little  note 
that  bore  the  handwriting  of  Dorothea  Duvidney. 

"  Dear  Victor,  we  are  prepared  to  receive  the  child  for  a 
month.     In  haste,  before  your  train.     Our  lovo.     D.  and  V." 

His  face  flashed  out  of  cloud. 

A  more  precious  document  had  never  been  handed  to  him. 
1\  chased  back  to  midnight  the  doubt  hovering  over  his 
belief  in  himself; — phrased  to  say,  that  he  was  no  longer 
the  Victor  Radnor  known  to  the  world.  And  it  extinguished 
a  corpse-light  recollection  of  a  baleful  dream  in  the  night. 
Here  shone  radiant  witness  of  his  being  the  very  man ;  save 
for  the  spot  of  his  recent  confusion  in  distinguishing  his 
identity  or  in  feeling  that  he  stood  whole  and  solid. — Because 
of  two  mature  maiden  ladies  ?  Yes,  because  of  two  maiden 
ladies,  rav  good  fellow.  And  friend  Colney,  you  know  the 
ladies,  and  what  the  getting  round  them  for  one's  purposes 
really  means. 

The  sprite  of  Colney  Durance  had  struck  him  smartly 
overnight.  Victor's  internal  crow  was  over  Colney  now. 
And  when  you  have  the  optimist  and  pessimist  acutely 
opposed  in  a  mixing  group,  they  direct  lively  conversations 
at  one  another  across  the  gulf  of  distance,  even  of  time. 
For  a  principle  is  involved,  besides  the  knowledge  of  the 
other's  triumph  or  dismay.  The  couple  are  scales  of  a 
balance ;  and  not  before  last  night  had  Victor  ever  consented 
to  think  of  Colney  ascending  while  he  dropped  low  to  graze 
the  pebbles. 

He  left  his  hotel  for  the  station,  singing  the  great  aria 
of  the  fourth  Act  of  the  Favorita :  neglected  since  that  mighty 


NESTA'S   ENGAGEMENT.  229 

German  with  his  Bienzi,  and  TannJiau^er,  and  Tristan  and 
Isolla,  had  mastered  him,  to  the  displacement  of  his  boy- 
hood's beloved  sugary  -inis  and  -antes  and  -zettis  ;  had  clearly 
mastered,  not  beguiled,  him;  had  wafted  him  up  to  a  new 
realm,  invigorating  if  severer.  But  now  bis  youth  would 
have  its  voice.  He  travelled  up  to  town  with  Sir  Abraham 
Qnatley,  and  talked,  and  took  and  gave  hints  upon  Cily 
and  Commercial  affairs,  while  the  honeyed  Italian  of  the 
conventional,  gloriously  animal,  stress  and  flutter  had  a 
revel  in  his  veins,  now  and  then  mutedly  ebullient  at  the 
mouth:  honeyed,  golden,  rich  in  visions; — having  surely 
much  more  of  Nature's  encouragement  to  her  children  ? 


CHAPTEE   XXIV. 

nesta's  engagement. 

A  word  in  his  ear  from  Fenellan,  touching  that  man 
Blathenoy,  set  the  wheels  of  Victor's  brain  at  work  upon 
his  defences,  for  a  minute,  on  the  walk  Westward.  Who 
knew? — who  did  not  know  !  He  had  a  torpid  consciousness 
that  he  cringed  to  the  world,  with  an  entreaty  to  the  great 
monster  to  hold  off  in  ignorance;  and  the  next  instant,  he 
had  caught  its  miserable  spies  by  the  lurcher  neck  and  was 
towering.  He  dwelt  on  his  contempt  of  them,  to  curtain 
the  power  they  could  stir. 

"  The  little  woman,  you  say,  took  to  Dartrey?" 

Fenellan,  with  the  usual  apologetic  moderation  of  a  second 
statement,  thought  "  there  was  the  look  of  it." 

44  Well,  we  must  watch  over  her.  Dartrey  !  —  but  Dartrey's 
an  honest  fellow  with  women.  But  men  are  men.  Very 
few  men  spare  a  woman  when  the  mad  fit  is  on  her.  A 
little  woman — pretty  little  woman  ! — wife  to  Jacob  Blathe- 
noy I  She  mustn't  at  her  age  have  any  close  choosing — 
under  her  hand.  And  Dartrey's  just  the  figure  to  strike  a 
spark  in  a  tinder-box  head." 

44  With  a  husband  who'd  reduce  Minerva's  to  tinder,  after 
a  month  of  him  !  " 

44  He  *pent  his  honeymoon   at   his   place  at  Wrensham  ,• 


230  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

told  me  so."  Blatlienoy  had  therefore  then  heard  of  the 
building  of  Lakelands  by  the  Victor  Radnor  of  the  City ; 
and  had  then,  we  guess — in  the  usual  honeymoon  boasting 
of  a  windbag  with  his  bride — wheezed  the  foul  gossip,  to 
hide  his  emptiness  and  do  duty  for  amusement  of  the  pretty 
little  caged  bird.  Probably  so.  But  Victor  knew  that 
Blathenoy  needed  him  and  feared  him.  Probably  the  wife 
had  been  enjoined  to  keep  silence ;  for  the  Blachingtons, 
Fannings  and  others  were,  it  cbuld  be  sworn,  blank  and 
unscratched  folio  sheets  on  the  subject: — as  yet;  unless 
Mrs.  Burman  had  dropped  venom. 

"  One  pities  the  little  woman,  eh,  Fenellan  ?  " 

"Dartrey  won't  be  back  for  a  week  or  so;  and  they're 
off  to  Switzerland,  after  the  dinner  they  give.  I  heard  from 
him  this  morning  ;  one  of  the  Clanconans  is  ill." 

"Lucky.  But  wherever  Blathenoy  takes  her,  he  must  be 
the  same  '  arid  bore,'  as  old  Colney  says." 

44  A  domestic  simoom,"  said  Fenellan,  booming  it :  and 
Victor  had  a  shudder. 

"  Awful  thing,  marriage,  to  some  women !  We  chain 
them  to  that  domestic  round;  most  of  them  haven't  the 
means  of  independence  or  a  chance  of  winning  it;  and  all 
that's  open  to  them,  if  they've  made  a  bad  cast  for  a  mate — ■ 
and  good  Lord !  how  are  they  to  know  before  it's  too  late  !— - 
they  haven't  a  choice  except  to  play  tricks  or  jump  to  the 
deuce  or  sit  and  'drape  in  blight,'  as  Colney  has  it;  though 
his  notion  of  the  optional  marriages,  broken  or  renewed 
every  seven  years  ! — if  he  means  it.  You  never  know,  with 
him.  It  sounds  like  another  squirt  of  savage  irony.  It's 
donkey  nonsense,  eh  ?  " 

"  The  very  hee-haw  of  nonsense,"  Fenellan  acquiesced. 

"  Come,  come ;  read  your  Scriptures  ;  donkeys  have  shown 
wisdom,"  Victor  said,  rather  leaning  to  the  theme  of  a 
fietfulness  of  women  in  the  legal  yoke.  "  They're  donkeys 
till  we  know  them  for  prophets.  Who  can  tell!  Colney 
may  be  hailed  for  one  fifty  years  hence." 

Fenellan  was  not  invited  to  enter  the  house,  although  the 
loneliness  of  his  lodgeings  was  known,  and  also,  that  he 
played  whist  at  his  Club.  Victor  had  grounds  for  turning 
to  him  at  the  door  and  squeezing  his  hand  warmly,  by  way 
of  dismissal.  In  ascribing  them  to  a  weariness  at  Fenellan's 
perpetual  acquiescence,  he  put  the  cover  on  them,  and  he 


nesta's  engagement.  231 

stamped  it  with  a  repudiation  of  the  charge,  that  Colney'w 
views  upon  the  great  Marriage  Question  were  the  '  very 
hee-haw  of  nonsense.'  They  were  not  the  hee-haw ;  in  fact, 
viewing  the  host  of  marriages,  they  were  for  discussion ; 
there  was  no  bray  about  them.  He  could  not  feel  them  to 
be  absurd  while  Mrs.  Burman's  tenure  of  existence  barred 
the  ceremony.  Anything  for  a  phrase  !  he  murmured  of 
Fenellan's  talk ;  calling  him,  Dear  old  boy,  to  soften  the 
Blight. 

Kataly  had  not  seen  Fenellan  or  heard  from  Dartrey ;  so 
she  continued  to  be  uninformed  of  her  hero's  release ;  and 
that  was  in  the  order  of  happy  accidents.  She  had  hardly 
to  look  her  interrogation  for  the  news;  it  radiated.  But 
he  stated  such  matter-of-course  briefly.  "  The  good  ladies 
are  ready  to  receive  our  girl." 

Her  chagrin  resolved  to  a  kind  of  solace  of  her  draggled 
pride,  in  the  idea,  that  he  who  tamed  everybody  to  sub- 
mission, might  well  have  command  of  her. 

The  note,  signed  D.  and  Y.,  was  shown. 

There  stood  the  words.  And  last  night  she  had  been 
partly  of  the  opinion  of  Colney  Durance.  She  sank  down 
among  the  unreasoning  abject ; — not  this  time  with  her 
perfect  love  of  him,  but  with  a  resistance  and  a  dubiety 
under  compression.  For  she  had  not  quite  comprehended 
why  Nesta  should  go.  This  readiness  of  the  Duvidney 
ladies  to  receive  the  girl,  stopped  her  mental  inquiries. 

She  begged  for  a  week's  delay ;  "  before  the  parting ;  " 
as  her  dear  old  silly  mother's  pathos  whimpered  it,  of  the 
separation  for  a  month  !  and  he  smiled  and  hummed  pleasantly 
at  any  small  petition,  thinking  her  in  error  to  expect  Dartrey's 
return  to  town  before  the  close  of  a  week ;  and  then  wondering 
at  women,  mildly  denouncing  in  his  heart  the  mothers  who 
ran  risk  of  disturbing  their  daughters'  bosoms  with  regard 
to  particular  heroes  married  or  not.  Dartrey  attracted 
women :  he  was  one  of  the  men  who  do  it  without  effort. 
Victor's  provident  mind  blamed  the  mother  for  the  indis- 
creetness  of  her  wish  to  have  him  among  them.  But  Dudley 
had  been  making  way  bravely  of  late ;  he  improved ;  he 
began  to  bloom,  like  a  Spring  flower  of  the  garden  protected 
from  frosts  under  glass ;  and  Fredi  was  the  sheltering  and 
nourishing  bestower  of  the  lessons.  One  could  see,  his 
questions  and  other  little   points  revealed,  that  he  had  a 


232  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

pertain  lover's  dread  of  Dartrey  Fenellan  ;  a  sort  of  iealonsy  : 
Victor  understood  the  feeling.  To  love  a  girl,  who  has  her 
ideal  of  a  man  elsewhere  in  another;  though  she  may  know- 
she  never  can  wed  the  man,  and  has  not  the  hope  of  it ;  is 
torment  to  the  lover  quailing,  as  we  do  in  this  terrible  season 
of  the  priceless  deliciousness,  stripped  against  all  the  winds 
that  blow ;  skinless  at  times.  One  gets  up  a  sympathy  for 
the  poor  shy  dependent  shivering  lover.  Nevertheless,  here 
was  young  Dudley  waking,  visibly  becoming  bolder.  As 
in  the  flute- due's,  he  gained  fire  from  concert.  The  distance 
between  Cronidge  and  Moorsedge  was  two  miles  and  a 
quarter. 

Instead  of  the  delay  of  a  whole  week,  Victor  granted  four 
days,  which  embraced  a  musical  evening  at  Mrs.  John 
Cormyn's  on  the  last  of  the  days,  when  Ntsta  was  engaged 
to  sing  with  her  mother  a  duet  of  her  own  composition,  tie 
first  public  fruit  of  her  lessons  in  counterpoint  from  rigid 
Herr  Strauscher,  who  had  said  what  he  had  said,  in  letiing 
it  pass:  eulogy,  coming  from  him.  So  Victor  heard,  and 
he  doated  on  the  surprise  to  come  for  him,  in  a  boyish 
anticipation.  The  girl's  little  French  ballads  under  tutelage 
of  Louise  de  Seilles  promised,  though  they  were  imitative. 
If  Strauscher  let  this  pass  .  .  .  Victor  saw  Grand  Opera 
somewhere  to  follow;  England's  claim  to  be  a  creative 
musical  nation  vindicated  ;  and  the  genius  of  the  fair  sex 
as  well. 

He  heard  the  duet  at  Mrs.  Cormyn's;  and  he  imagined  a 
hearing  of  his  Fredi's  Opera,  and  her  godmother's  delight  in 
it;  the  once-famed  Sanfredini's  consent  to  be  the  diva  at  a 
rehearsal,  and  then  her  compelling  her  hidalgo  duque  to 
consent  further  :  an  event  not  inconceivable.  For  here  was 
downright  genius  ;  the  flowering  aloe  of  the  many  years  in 
formation ;  and  Colney  admitted  the  song  to  have  a  streak 
of  genius  ;  though  he  would  pettishly  and  stupidly  say,  that 
our  modern  newspaper  Press  is  able  now  to  force  genius  for 
us  twenty  or  so  to  the  month,  excluding  Sundays — our  short 
pauses  for  the  incubation  of  it.  Eeal  rare  genius  was  in  that 
song,  nothing  forced ;  and  exquisite  melody ;  one  of  those 
melodies  which  fling  gold  chains  about  us  and  lead  us  off, 
lead  us  back  into  Eden.  Victor  hummed  at  bars  of  it  on 
the  drive  homeward.  His  darlings  had  to  sing  it  again  in 
the  half-lighted  drawing-room.    The  bubble-happiness  of  the 


nesta's  engagement.  233 

three  was  vexed  only  by  tidings  heird  from  Colney  during 
the  evening  of  a  renewed  instance  of  Skepsey's  misconduct. 
Priscilla  Graves  had  hurried  away  to  him  at  the  close  of 
Mr.  John  Cormyn's  Concert,  in  consequence  ;  in  grief  and  in 
sympathy.  Skepsey  was  to  appear  before  the  magistrate 
next  morning,  for  having  administered  physical  chastise- 
ment to  his  wife  during  one  of  her  fits  of  drunkenness. 
Colney  had  seen  him.  His  version  of  the  story  was  given, 
however,  in  the  objectionable  humorous  manner  :  none  could 
gather  from  it  what  might  be  pleaded  for  Skepsey.  His 
*  lesson  to  his  wife  in  the  art  of  pugilism,  before  granting 
her  Captain's  rank  among  the  Defensive  Amazons  of  Old 
England,'  was  the  customary  patent  absurdity.  But  it  was 
odd,  that  Skepsey  always  preferred  his  appeal  for  help  to 
Colney  Durance.  Nesta  proposed  following  Priscilla  that 
night.  She  had  hinted  her  wish,  on  the  way  home  ;  she  was 
urgent,  beseeching,  when  her  father  lifted  praises  of  her  : 
she  had  to  start  with  her  father  by  the  train  at  seven  in  the 
morning,  and  she  could  not  hear  of  poor  Skepsey  for  a 
number  of  hours.  She  begged  a  day's  delay ;  which  would 
enable  her,  she  said,  to  join  them  in  dining  at  the  Blaching- 
ton's,  and  seeing  dear  Lakelands  again.  "  I  was  invited,  you 
know."  She  spoke  in  childish  style,  and  under  her  eyes  she 
beheld  her  father  and  mother  exchange  locks.  He  had  a 
fear  that  Nataly  might  support  the  girl's  petition.  Nataly 
read-  him  to  mean,  possible  dangers  among  the  people  at 
Wrensham.  She  had  seemed  hesitating.  After  meeting 
Victor's  look,  her  negative  was  firm.  She  tried  to  make  it 
one  of  distress  for  the  use  of  the  negative  to  her  own  dear 
girl.     Nesta  spied  beneath. 

But  what  was  it?  There  was  a  reason  for  her  going! 
She  had  a  right  to  stay,  and  see  and  talk  with  Captain 
Dartrey,  and  she  was  to  be  deported  ! 

So  now  she  set  herself  to  remember  little  incidents  at 
Creckholt :  particularly  a  conversation  in  a  very  young  girl's 
hearing,  upon  Sir  Humphrey  and  Lady  Pottil's  behaviour  to 
the  speakers,  her  parents.  She  had  then,  and  she  now  had, 
an  extraordinary  feeling,  as  from  a  wind  striking  upon  soft 
summer  weather  off  regions  of  ice,  that  she  was  in  her 
parents'  way.  How  ?  The  feeling  was  irrational  ;  it  could 
give  her  no  reply,  or  only  the  multitudinous  which  are  the 
question  violently  repeated.     She  slept  on  it. 


234  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

She  and  her  father  breakfasted  by  the  London  birds'  firsl 
twitter.  They  talked  of  Skepsey.  She  spoke  of  her  going 
as  exile.     "No,"  said  he,  " you're  snre  to  meet  friends." 

Her  cheeks  glowed.     It  came  wholly  through  the  sudden 
ness  of  the  recollection,  that  the  family-seat  of  one  among 
the  friends  was  near  the  Wells. 

He  was  allowed  to  fancy,  as  it  suited  him  to  fancy,  that 
a  vivid  secret  pleasure  laid  the  colour  on  those  ingenuous  fair 
cheeks. 

"  A  solitary  flute  for  me,  for  a  month !  I  shall  miss  my 
sober  comrade  :  got  the  habit  of  duetting  :  and  he's  gentle, 
bears  with  me." 

Tears  lined  her  eyelids.  "  Who  would  not  be,  dearest 
dada  !     But  there  is  nothing  to  bear  except  the  honour." 

"You  like  him?  You  and  I  always  have  the  same  tastes, 
Fredi." 

Now  there  was  a  reddening  of  the  sun  at  the  mount ;  all 
the  sky  aflame.  How  could  he  know  that  it  was  not  the 
heart  in  the  face !  She  reddened  because  she  had  perused 
his  wishes;  had  detected  a  scheme  striking  off  from  them, 
and  knew  a  man  to  be  the  object  of  it ;  and  because  she  had 
at  the  same  time  the  sense  of  a  flattery  in  her  quick  divina- 
tion ;  and  she  was  responsively  emotional,  her  blood  virginal, 
often  it  was  a  tropical  lightning. 

It  looked  like  the  heart  doing  rich  painter's  work  on 
maiden  features.  Victor  was  naturally  as  deceived  as  he 
wished  to  be. 

From  his  being  naturally  so,  his  remarks  on  Dudley  had 
an  air  of  embracing  him  as  one  of  the  family.  "  His  manner 
to  me  just  hits  me." 

"  I  like  to  see  him  with  you,"  she  said. 

Her  father  let  his  tongue  run :  "  One  of  the  few  young 
men  I  feel  perfectly  at  home  with  !  I  do  like  dealing  with 
a  gentleman.  I  can  confide  in  a  gentleman :  honour,  heart, 
whatever  I  hold  dearest." 

There  he  stopped,  not  too  soon.  The  girl  was  mute,  fully 
agreeing,  slightly  hardening.  She  had  a  painful  sense  of 
separation  from  her  dear  Louise.  And  it  was  now  to  be 
from  her  mother  as  well :  she  felt  the  pain  when  kissing  her 
mother  in  bed.  But  this  was  moderated  by  the  prospect  of 
a  holiday  away  out  of  reach  of  Mr.  Barmby's  pursuing  voice, 
whom  her  mother  favoured:  and  her  mother  was  concealing 


235 

something  from  her ;  so  she  could  not  make  the  confidante 
of  her  mother.  Nataly  had  no  forewarning.  Her  simple 
regrets  filled  her  bosom.  All  night  she  had  been  taking  her 
chastisement,  and  in  the  morning  it  seemed  good  to  her,  that 
she  should  be  denuded,  for  her  girl  to  learn  the  felicity  of 
having  relatives. 

For  some  reason,  over  which  Nataly  mused  in  the  suc- 
ceeding hours,  the  girl  had  not  spoken  of  any  visit  her 
mother  was  to  pay  to  the  Duvidney  ladies  or  they  to  her. 
Latterly  she  had  not  alluded  to  her  mother's  family.  It 
might  mean,  that  the  beloved  and  dreaded  was  laying  finger 
on  a  dark  thing  in  the  dark  ;  reading  syllables  by  touch ; 
keeping  silence  over  the  communications  to  a  mind  not  yet 
actively  speculative,  as  it  is  a  way  with  young  women. 
u  With  young  women  educated  for  the  market,  to  be  timorous, 
consequently  secretive,  rather  snaky,"  Colney  Durance  had 
said.  Her  Nesta  was  not  one  of  the  "framed  and  glazed" 
description,  cited  by  him,  for  an  example  of  the  triumph  of 
the  product ;  "  exactly  harmonious  with  the  ninny  male's 
ideal  of  female  innocence."  No ;  but  what  if  the  mother 
had  opened  her  heart  to  her  girl?  It  had  been  of  late  her 
wish  or  a  dream,  shaping  hourly  to  a  design,  now  positively 
to  go  through  that  furnace.  Her  knowledge  of  Victor's 
objection,  restrained  an  impulse  that  had  not  won  spring 
enough  to  act  against  his  counsel  or  vivify  an  intelligence 
grown  dull  in  slavery  under  him,  with  regard  to  the  one 
seeming  right  course.  The  adoption  of  it  would  have 
wounded  him — therefore  her.  She  had  thought  of  him  first; 
she  had  also  thought  of  herself,  and  she  blamed  herself  now. 
IShe  went  so  far  as  to  think,  that  Victor  was  guilty  of  the 
schemer's  error  of  counting  human  creatures  arithmetically, 
in  the  sum,  without  the  estimate  of  distinctive  qualities  and 
value  here  and  there.  His  return  to  a  shivering  sensitive- 
ness on  the  subject  of  his  girl's  enlightenment  *' just  yet," 
for  which  Nataly  pitied  and  loved  him,  sharing  it,  with 
humiliation  for  doing  so,  became  finally  her  excuse.  We 
must  have  some  excuse,  if  we  would  keep  to  life. 

Skepsey's  case  appeared  in  the  evening  papers.  He  con- 
fessed, "frankly,"  he  said,  to  the  magistrate,  that,  "acting 
under  temporary  exasperation,  he  had  lost  for  a  moment  a 
man's  proper  self-command."  He  was  as  frank  in  stating, 
that  he  **  occupied  the  prisoner's  place  before  his  Worship  a 


236  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

second  time,  and  was  a  second  time  indebted  to  the  gentle- 
man, Mr.  Colney  Durance,  who  so  kindly  stood  by  him." 
There  was  hilarity  in  the  Court  at  his  quaint  sententious 
envelopment  of  the  idiom  of  the  streets,  which  he  delivered 
with  solemnity:  "He  could  only  plead,  not  in  absolute 
justification — an  appeal  to  human  sentiments — the  feelings 
of  a  man  of  the  humbler  orders,  returning  home  in  the 
evening,  and  his  thoughts  upon  things  not  without  their 
importance,  to  find  repeatedly  the  guardian  of  his  household 
beast lv  drunk,  and  destructive."  Colney  made  the  case  quite 
intelligible  to  the  magistrate  ;  who  gravely  robed  a  strain  of 
the  idiomatic  in  the  officially  awful,  to  keep  in  tune  with 
his  delinquent.  No  serious  harm  had  been  done  to  the 
woman.  Skepsey  was  admonished  and  released.  His  wife 
expressed  her  willingness  to  forgive  him,  now  he  had  got  his 
lesson ;  and  she  hoped  he  would  understand,  that  there  was 
no  need  for  a  woman  to  learn  pugilism.  Skepsey  would  have 
explained ;  but  the  case  was  over,  he  was  hustled  out. 
However,  a  keen  young  reporter  present  sm jit  fun  for  copy ; 
he  followed  the  couple  ;  and  in  a  particular  evening  Journal, 
laugLable  matter  was  printed  concerning  Skepsey's  view  of 
the  pugilism  to  be  imparted  to  women  for  their  physical  pro- 
tection in  extremity,  and  the  distinction  of  it  from  the  blow 
cc  nveying  the  moral  lesson  to  them  ;  his  wife  having  objected 
to  the  former,  because  it  annoyed  her  and  he  pestered  her ; 
and  she  was  never,  she  said,  ready  to  stand  up  to  him  for 
practice,  as  he  called  it,  except  when  she  had  taken  more 
than  he  thought  wholesome  for  her : — he  had  no  sense.  There 
was  a  squabble  between  them,  because  he  chose  to  scour 
away  to  his  master's  office  instead  of  conducting  her  home 
with  the  honours.  N-esta  read  the  young  reporter's  version, 
with  shrieks.  She  led  the  ladies  of  Moorsedge  to  discover 
amusement  in  it. 

At  first,  as  her  letter  to  her  mother  described  them,  they 
were  like  a  pair  of  pieces  of  costly  China,  with  the  settled 
smile,  and  cold.  She  saw  but  the  outside  of  them,  and  she 
continued  reporting  the  variations,  which  steadily  determined 
to  warmth.  On  the  night  of  the  third  day,  they  kissed  her 
tenderly ;  they  were  human  figures. 

No  one  could  be  aware  of  the  trial  undergone  by  the  good 
ladies  in  receiving  her  :  Victor's  child ;  but,  as  their  phrase 
would  have  run,  had  they  dared  to  give  it  utterance  to  one 


NESTA'S   ENGAGEMENT.  237 

another,  a  child  of  sin.  How  foreign  to  them,  in  that 
character ;  how  strange,  when  she  was  looked  on  as  an 
inhabitant  of  their  house;  they  hardly  dared  to  estimate; 
until  the  timorous  estimation,  from  gradually  swelling, 
suddenly  sank  ;  nature  invaded  them ;  they  could  discard 
the  alienating  sense  of  the  taint;  and  not  only  did  they  no 
longer  fear  the  moment  when  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  or  Mr. 
Posterley  might  call  for  evening  tea,  but  they  consulted 
upon  inviting  the  married  one  of  those  gentlemen,  "  to  divert 
dear  Nesta."  Every  night  she  slept  well.  In  all  she  did, 
she  proved  she  was  '  of  the  blood.'  She  had  Victor's 
animated  eyes  ;  she  might  have,  they  dreaded  to  think,  his 
eloquence.  They  put  it  down  to  his  eloquence  entirely, 
that  their  resistance  to  his  petition  had  been  overcome,  for 
similarly  with  the  treatment  of  the  private  acts  of  royal 
personages  by  lacquey  History,  there  is,  in  the  minds  of  the 
ultra-civilized,  an  insistance,  that  any  event  having  a  con- 
sequence in  matters  personal  to  them,  be  at  all  hazards 
recorded  with  the  utmost  nicety  in  decency.  By  such  means, 
they  preserve  the  ceremonial  self-respect,  which  is  a  necessity 
of  their  existence  ;  and  so  they  maintain  the  regal  elevation 
over  the  awe-struck  subjects  of  their  interiors;  who  might 
otherwise  revolt,  pull  down,  scatter,  dishonour,  expose  for  a 
shallow  fiction  the  holiest,  the  most  vital  to  them.  A  demo- 
cratic evil  spirit  is  abroad,  generated  among  congregations, 
often  perilously  communicating  its  wanton  laughter  to  the 
desperate  wickedness  they  know  (not  solely  through  the 
monition  of  Mr.  Stuart  Eem)  to  lurk  within.  It  has  to  be 
excluded  :  on  certain  points  they  must  not  think.  The  night 
of  Tas>o  was  darkly  clouded  in  the  minds  of  the  pure  ladies : 
a  rift  would  have  seized  their  half-slumbering  sense  of  smell, 
to  revive  the  night,  perhaps  disorder  the  stately  march  of 
their  intelligences. 

Victor's  eloquence,  Victor's  influence,  Victor's  child:  he 
carried  them  as  a  floodstreara,  insomuch,  that  their  reception 
of  this  young  creature  of  the  blot  on  her  birth,  was  regarded 
by  them  in  the  unmentioned  abstract,  and  the  child's  presence 
upon  earth  seen  with  the  indulgence  (without  the  naughty 
curiosity)  of  the  loyal  moral  English  for  the  numerous 
offspring  of  the  peccadillos  of  their  monarchs.  These  things 
pis*  muster  from  being  '' Britannically  cocooned  in  the 
purple,"  &ays  our  irreverent  satirist;  and  the  maiden  ladies' 


208  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

passion  of  devotion  to  'the  blood'  helped  fo  blind  them; 
but  still  more  so  did  the  imperious  urgency  to  curtail  closely 
the  night  of  Tasso,  throwing  all  its  consequences  upon  Victor's 
masterful  tongue.  Whence  it  ensued  (and  here  is  the  danger 
for  illogical  individuals  as  well  as  vast  communities,  who 
continue  to  batten  upon  fiction  when  the  convenience  of  it 
has  taken  the  place  of  pleasure),  that  they  had  need  to  exalt 
his  eloquence,  for  a  cloak  to  their  conduct ;  and  doing  it, 
they  fell  into  a  habit  of  yielding  to  him ;  they  disintegrated 
under  him ;  rules,  principles,  morality,  were  shaken  to  some 
confusion.  And  still  proceeding  thus,  they  now  and  then 
glanced  back,  more  wonderingly  than  convicted  sinuers  upon 
their  days  of  early  innocence,  at  the  night  when  successfully 
they  withstood  him.  They  who  had  doubted  of  the  Tight- 
ness of  letting  Victor's  girl  come  into  collision  with  two 
clerical  gentlemen,  one  of  whom  was  married,  permitted  him 
now  to  bring  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby  to  their  house,  and 
make  appointments  to  meet  Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby  under  a 
roof  that  sheltered  a  young  lady,  evidently  the  allurement 
to  the  scion  of  aristocracy ;  of  whose  family  Mr.  Stuart  Kem 
had  spoken  in  the  very  kindling  hushed  tones,  proper  to  the 
union  of  a  sacerdotal  and  an  English  citizen's  veneration. 

How  would  it  end  ?  And  if  some  day  this  excellent  Mr. 
Dudley  Sowerby  reproached  them !  He  could  not  have  a 
sweeter  bride,  one  more  truly  a  lady  in  education  and 
manners ;  but  the  birth !  the  child's  name !  Their  trouble 
was  emitted  in  a  vapour  of  interjections.  Very  perplexing 
was  it  for  the  good  ladies  of  strict  principles  to  reflect,  as 
dimly  they  did,  that  the  concrete  presence  of  dear  Nesta 
silenced  and  overcame  objections  to  her  being  upon  earth. 
She  seemed,  as  it  were,  a  draught  of  redoubtable  Nature 
inebriating  morality.  But  would  others  be  similarly  affected? 
Victor  might  get  his  release,  to  do  justice  to  the  mother :  it 
would  not  cover  the  child.  Prize  as  they  might  the  quality 
of  the  Eadnor  blood  (drawn  from  the  most  ancient  of  original 
Britain's  princes),  there  was  also  the  Cantor  blood  for  con- 
sideration ;  and  it  was  old,  noble,  proud.  Would  it  be  satisfied 
in  matching  itself  with  great  wealth,  a  radiant  health,  and 
the  good  looks  of  a  young  flower?  For  the  sake  of  the  dear 
girl,  the  ladies  hoped  that  it  would ;  and  they  enlarged  the 
outline  of  their  wedding  present,  while,  in  their  minds, 
the  noble  English  family  which  could  be  satisfied  so,  waa 


nesta's  engagement.  239 

lowered,  partaking  of  the  taint  they  had  personally  ceased 
to  recognize. 

Of  one  thing  they  were  sure,  and  it  enlisted  them:  the  gentle- 
man loved  the  girl.  Her  love  of  him,  had  it  been  prominent 
to  view,  would  have  stirred  a  feminine  sigh,  not  more,  except 
a  feminine  lecture  to  follow.  She  was  quite  uninflair?d, 
fresh  and  cool  as  a  spring.  His  artlour  had  no  disguise. 
They  measured  him  by  the  favourite  fiction's  heroes  of  their 
youth,  and  found  him  to  gaze,  talk,  comport  himself,  accord- 
ing to  the  prescription  ;  correct  grammar,  finished  sentences, 
all  that  is  expected  of  a  gentleman  enamoured  ;  and  ever 
with  the  watchful  intentness  for  his  lady's  faintest  fi»st 
dawn  of  an  inclining  to  a  wish.  Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby's  eye 
upon  Nesta  was  really  an  apprentice.  There  is  in  Love's 
young  season  a  magnanimity  in  the  male  kind.  Their 
superior  strength  and  knowledge  are  made  subservient  to 
the  distaff  of  the  weaker  and  shallower:  they  crown  her 
queen;  her  look  is  their  mandate.  So  was  it  when  Sir 
Charles  and  Sir  Rupert  and  the  estimable  Villiers  Davenant 
touched  maidenly  hearts  to  throb  :  so  is  it  now,  with  the 
Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby. 

Very  haltingly,  the  ladies  were  guilty  of  a  suggestion  to 
Victor.  "  Oh  !  Fredi  ?  "  said  he  ;  "  admires  her,  no  doubt ; 
and  so  do  I,  so  we  all  do  ;  she's  one  of  the  nice  girls  ;  but  as 
to  Cupid's  daits,  she  belongs  to  the  cucumber  family,  and 
he  shoots  without  fireing.  We  shall  do  the  mischief  if  we 
put  an  interdict.  Don't  you  remember  the  green  days  when 
obstacles  were  the  friction  to  light  that  match?"  Their 
pretty  nod  of  assent  displayed  the  virgin  pride  of  the 
remembrance  :  they  dreamed  of  having  once  been  exceedingly 
wilful ;  it  refreshed  their  nipped  natures ;  and  dwelling  on 
it,  they  forgot  to  press  their  suggestion.  Incidentally,  he 
named  the  sum  his  Fredi  would  convey  to  her  husband  ; 
with,  as  was  calculable,  the  further  amount  his  only  child 
would  inherit.  A  curious  effect  was  produced  on  them. 
Though  they  were  not  imaginatively  mercenary,  as  the 
♦  reatures  tainted  with  wealth  commonly  are,  they  talked 
01  the  sum  over  and  over  in  the  solitude  of  their  chamber. 
"  Dukes  have  married  for  less."  Such  an  heiress,  they  said, 
might  buy  up  a  Principality.  Victor  had  supplied  them 
with  something  of  an  apology  to  the  gentleman  proposing 
to  Nesta  in  their  house. 


240  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

The  chronicle  of  it  is,  that  Dudley  Sowerby  did  this  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  September ;  and  that  it  was  not  known  to 
the  damsel's  parents  before  the  twenty-third ;  as  they  were 
away  on  an  excursion  in  South  Tyrol: — away,  flown,  with  just 
a  word  of  the  hurried  departure  to  their  envious,  exiled  girl ; 
though,  they  did  not  tell  her  of  new  constructions  at  the 
London  house  partly  causing  them  to  fly.  Subject  to  their 
consent,  she  wrote,  she  had  given  hers.  The  letter  was  tele- 
gramic  on  the  essential  point.  She  wrote  of  Mr.  Barm  by 's 
having  visited  Mr.  Posierley  at  the  Wells,  and  she  put  it 
just  as  flatly.  Her  principal  concern,  to  judge  by  her 
writing,  was,  to  know  what  Mr.  Durance  had  done,  during 
her  absence,  with  the  group  of  emissary-advocates  of  the 
various  tongues  of  Europe  on  board  the  steam-Liner  con- 
ducting them  the  first  stage  of  their  journey  to  the  Court 
of  Japan.  Mr.  Simeon  Fenellan  had  written  his  opinion, 
that  all  these  delegates  of  the  different  European  nation- 
alities were  nothing  other  than  dupes  of  a  New- York  Syndi- 
cate of  American  Humorists,  not  without  an  eye  on  the 
mainchance ;  and  he  was  sure  they  would  be  set  to  debate 
publicly,  before  an  audience  of  high-priced  tickets,  in  the 
principal  North  American  Cities,  previous  to  the  embarcation 
for  Japan  at  San  Francisco.  Mr.  Fenellan  eulogized  the 
immense  astuteness  of  Dr.  Gannius  in  taking  his  daughter 
Delphica  with  him.  Dr.  Gannius  had  singled  forth  poor 
Dr.  Bouthoin  for  the  object  of  his  attacks;  but  Nesta  was 
chiefly  anxious  to  hear  of  Delphica's  proceedings ;  she  was 
immensely  interested  in  Delphica,  and  envied  her ;  and  the 
girl's  funny  speculations  over  the  play  of  Delphica's  divers 
arts  upon  the  Greek,  and  upon  the  Russian,  and  upon  the 
English  curate  Mr.  Sembians,  and  upon  M.  Falarique — set 
Gallic-ally  pluming  and  crowing  out  of  an  Alsace-Lorraine 
growl — were  clever.  Only,  in  such  a  letter,  they  were 
amazing.  g 

Nataly  received  it  at  Carapiglio,  when  about  to  start  for 
an  excursion  down  the  Sarca  Valley  to  Arco.  Her  letter  of 
reply  was  delayed.  One  to  Victor  from  Dudley  Sowerby, 
awaited  them,  on  their  return.  "  Confirms  Fredi,"  he  said, 
showing  it,  and  praising  it  as  commendable,  properly  fervid. 
She  made  pretence  to  read,  she  saw  the  words. 

Her  short  beat  of  wings  was  over.  She  had  joined  herself 
with  Victor's  leap  for  a  change,  thirsting  for  the  scenery  of 


nesta's  engagement.  241 

the  white  peaks  in  heaven,  to  enjoy  through  his  enjoyment, 
if  her  own  capacity  was  dead  :  and  she  had  found  it  revive, 
up  to  some  recovery  of  her  old  songful  readiness  for  invoca- 
tions of  pleasure.  E>caj>e  and  beauty  beckoned  ahead ; 
behind  were  the  chains.  These  two  letters  of  the  one  fact 
plu<  ked  her  back.  The  chained  boly  bore  the  fluttering 
spirit:  or  it  was  the  spirit  in  bonds,  that  dragged  the  body. 
Both  were  abashed  before  the  image  of  her  girl.  Out  of  the 
riddle  of  her  strange  Nesta,  one  thing  was  clear:  she  did 
not  love  the  man  :  and  Nataly  tasted  gladness  in  that,  from 
the  cup  of  poisonous  regrets  at  the  thought.  Her  girl's 
heart  would  rot  be  broken.  But  if  he  so  strongly  loved  her, 
as  to  hold  to  this  engagement?  ...  It  might  then  be  worse. 
She  dropped  a  pluuio-line  into  the  young  man,  sounding  him 
by  what  she  knew  of  him  and  judged.  She  had  to  revert 
to  Nesta's  charm,  for  the  assurance  of  his  anchored  attach- 
ment. 

Her  holiday  took  the  burden  of  her  trouble,  and  amid  the 
beauty  of  a  disenchanted  scene,  she  resumed  the  London 
incubus. 

"  You  told  him  of  her  being  at  the  Wells  ?  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, Victor?" 

"  Didn't  you  know,  my  dear,  the  family-seat  is  Cronidge, 
two  miles  out  from  the  Wells? — and  particularly  pretty 
country." 

"  I  had  forgotten,  if  I  ever  heard.  You  will  not  let  him 
be  in  ignorance  ?  " 

"  My  dear  love,  you  are  pale  about  it.  This  is  a  matter 
between  men.  I  write,  thanking  for  the  honour  and  so 
forth;  and  I  appoint  an  interview;  and  I  show  him  my 
tablets.  He  must  be  told,  necessarily.  Incidents  of  this 
kind  come  in  their  turn.  If  Dudley  does  not  account  himself 
the  luckiest  young  fellow  in  the  kingdom,  he's  not  worthy 
of  his  good  fortune.  I  wish  they  were  both  here  now, 
honeymooning  among  these  peaks,  seeing  the  crescent  over 
one,  as  we  did  last  night  !" 

"  Have  you  an  idea,  in  reading  Nesta's  letter  ?  * 

"  Seems  indifferent? — mere  trick  to  hide  the  blushes.  And 
I,  too,  I'm  interested  in  Delphica.  Delphica  and  Falarique 
will  be  fine  stage  business.  Of  course,  Dr.  Buuthoin  and 
his  curate  ! — we  know  what  Old  England  has  to  expect  from 
Colney." 

B 


242  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  At  any  rate,  Mr.  Durance  hurts  no  one.  You  will,  in 
your  letter,  appoint  the  day  of  the  interview?" 

"Hurts  himself!  Yes,  dearest;  appoint  for — ten  days 
homeward — eleventh  day  from  to-day.  And  you  to  Fredi : 
a  bit  of  description — as  you  can,  my  Nataly  !  Happy  to  be 
a  dolomite,  to  be  painted  by  Nataly's  pen." 

The  sign  is  evil,  when  we  have  a  vexatious  ringing  in 
the  ear  of  some  small  piece  of  familiar  domestic  chatter,  and 
subject  it  to  scrutiny,  hang  on  it,  worry  and  magnify  it. 
What  will  not  creatures  under  sway  of  the  sensational  life, 
catch  at  to  emphasize  and  strengthen  distaste,  until  distaste 
shall  have  a  semblance  of  reason,  in  the  period  of  the  mind's 
awakening  to  revolt !  Nataly  shrank  from  the  name  of 
dolomite,  detested  the  name,  though  the  scenes  regained 
their  beauty  or  something  of  it  beneath  her  showery  vision. 
Every  time  Victor  spoke  of  dolomites  on  the  journey  home- 
ward, she  had  at  heart  an  accusation  of  her  cowardice,  her 
duplicity,  frailty,  treachery  to  the  highest  of  her  worship 
and  sole  support  of  her  endurance  in  the  world  :  not  much 
blaming  him  :  but  the  degrading  view  of  herself  sank  them 
both.  On  a  shifty  soil,  down  goes  the  idol.  For  him  she 
could  plead  still,  for  herself  she  could  not. 

The  smell  of  the  Channel  brine  inspirited  her  sufficiently 
to  cast  off  the  fit  and  make  it  seem,  in  the  main,  a  bodily 
depression  ;  owing  to  causes,  of  which  she  was  beginning  to 
have  an  apprehensive  knowledge  :  and  they  were  not  so 
fearful  to  her  as  the  gloom  they  displaced. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

NATALY    IN    ACTION. 

A  tucket  of  herald  newspapers  told  the  world  of  Victor's 
returning  to  his  London.  Pretty  Mrs.  Blathenov  was  Nataly's 
first  afternoon  visitor,  and  was  graciously  received;  no  sign 
of  inquiry  for  the  cause  of  the  lady's  alacrity  to  greet  her 
being  shown.  Colney  Durance  came  in,  bringing  the  rumour 
of  an  Australian  cantatrice  to  kindle  Europe  ;  Mr.  Peridon, 
a  seeker  ot  tidings  from  the  city  of  Bourges ;  Miss  Priscilla 


NATALY   IN   ACTION.  243 

Graves,  reporting  of  Skepsey,  in  a  holiday  Sunday  tone, 
that  his  alcoholic  partner  might  at  any  moment  release 
him;  Mr.  Septimus  Barmby,  with  a  hanged  heavy  look, 
suggestive  of  a  wharfside  crane  swinging  the  ponderous 
thing  he  had  to  say.     "  I  have  seen  Miss  Radnor." 

"  She  was  well  ?  "  the  mother  asked,  and  the  grand  basso 
pitched  forth  an  affirmative. 

"  Dear  sweet  girl  she  is ! "  Mrs.  Blathenoy  exclaimed  to 
Colney. 

He  bowed.  "  Very  sweet.  And  can  let  fly  on  you,  like 
a  haggis,  for  a  scratch." 

She  laughed,  glad  of  an  escape  from  the  conversational 
formalities  imposed  on  her  by  this  Mrs.  Victor  Radnor's 
mighty  manner.  "  But  what  girl  worth  anything  1  .  .  . 
We  all  can  do  that,  I  hope,  for  a  scratch  1 " 

Mr.  Barmby's  Profession  dissented. 

Mr.  Catkin  appeared  ;  ten  minutes  after  his  Peridon.  He 
had  met  Victor  near  the  Exchange,  and  had  left  him 
humming  the  non  fu  sogno  of  Ernaxj. 

"  Ah,  when  Victor  takes  to  Verdi,  it's  a  flat  City,  and 
wants  a  burst  of  drum  and  brass,''  Colney  said ;  and  he 
hummed  a  few  bars  of  the  march  in  Attila,  and  shrugged. 
He  and  Victor  had  once  admired  that  blatancy. 

Mr.  Pempton  appeared,  according  to  anticipation.  He 
sat  himself  beside  Priscilla.  Entered  Mrs.  John  Cormyn, 
voluminous;  Mrs.  Peter  Yatt,  effervescent;  Nataly's  own 
people  were  about  her  and  she  felt  at  home. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  pushed  a  small  thorn  into  it,  by  speaking 
of  Captain  Fenellan,  and  aside,  as  if  sharing  him  with  her. 
Nataly  heard,  that  Dartrey  had  been  the  guest  of  these 
Blathenoys.     Even  Dartrey  was  but  a  man  ! 

Rather  lower  under  her  voice,  the  vain  little  creature 
asked  :  "  You  knew  her  ?  " 

"Her?" 

The  cool  counter-interrogation  was  disregarded.  "So 
sad !  In  the  desert !  a  cup  of  pure  water  worth  more  than 
barrow-loads  of  gold !     Poor  woman  I  " 

"Who?" 

"His  wife." 

"Wife!" 

"  They  were  married?  " 

Nataiy  could  have  cried :  Snake !     Her    play  at  brevity 


244  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

had  certainly  been  foiled.  She  nodded  gravely.  A  load  of 
dusky  wonders  and  speculations  pressed  at  her  bosom.  She 
disdained  to  question  the  mouth  which  had  bitten  her. 

Mis.  Blathenoy,  resolving,  that  despite  the  jealousy  she 
excited,  she  would  have  her  friend  in  Captain  Fenellm, 
whom  she  liked — liked,  she  was  sure,  quite  as  innocently 
as  any  other  woman  of  his  acquaintance  did,  departed :  and 
she  hugged  her  innocence  defiantly,  with  the  mournful  pride 
which  will  sometimes  act  as  a  solvent. 

A  remark  or  two  passed  anion  g  the  company  upon  her 
pretty  face. 

Nataly  murmured  to  Colney :  "  Is  there  anything  of 
Dartrey's  wife  ?  " 

"Dead,"  he  answered.  ■* 

"When?" 

"  Months  back.  I  had  it  from  Simeon.  You  didn't 
hear?" 

She  shook  her  head.  Her  ears  buzzed.  If  he  had  it  from 
Simeon  Fenellan,  Victor  must  have  known  it. 

Her  duties  of  hostess  were  conducted  with  the  official 
smile. 

As  soon  as  she  stood  alone,  she  dropped  on  a  chair,  like 
one  who  has  taken  a  shot  in  the  heart,  and  that  hideous 
tumult  of  wild  cries  at  her  ears  blankly  ceased.  Dartrey, 
Victor,  Nesta,  were  shifting  figures  of  the  might-have-been  : 
for  whom  a  wretched  erring  woman,  washed  clean  of  her 
guilt  by  death,  in  a  far  land,  had  gone  to  her  end :  vainly 
gone :  and  now  another  was  here,  a  figure  of  wood,  in  man's 
shape,  conjured  up  by  one  of  the  three,  to  divide  the  two 
others ;  likely  to  be  fatal  to  her  or  to  them :  to  her,  she 
hoped,  if  the  choice  was  to  be :  and  beneath  the  leaden  hope, 
her  heart  set  to  a  rapid  beating,  a  fainter,  a  chill  at  the  core. 

She  snatched  for  breath.  She  shut  her  eyes,  and  with 
open  lips,  lay  waiting;  prepared  to  thank  the  kindness 
about  to  hurry  her  henee,  out  of  the  seas  of  pain,  without 
pain. 

Then  came  sighs.  The  sad  old  seivant  in  her  bosom  was 
resuming  his  labours. 

But  she  had  been  near  it — very  near  it?  A  gush  of  pity 
for  Victor,  overwhelmed  her  hardness  of  mind. 

Unreflectingly,  she  tried  her  feet  to  support  her,  and 
tottered  to  the  door,  touched  along  to  the  stairs,  and  descended 


NATALT   IN   ACTION.  245 

them,  thinking  strangely  upon  snch  a  sudden  weakness  of 
body,  when  she  would  no  longer  have  thought  herself  the 
weak  woman.  Her  aim  was  to  reach  the  library.  She  sat 
on  the  stairs  midway,  pondering  over  the  length  of  her 
journey  :  and  now  her  head  was  clearer ;  for  she  was  travelling 
to  get  Kail  way-guides,  and  might  have  had  them  from  the 
hands  of  a  footman,  and  imagined  that  she  had  considered 
it  prudent  to  hide  her  investigation  of  those  books  :  proofs 
of  an  understanding  fallen  backward  to  the  state  of  infant 
and  having  to  begin  our  drear  ascent  again. 

A  slam  of  the  kitchen  stair-door  restored  her.  She  betrayed 
no  infirmity  of  f  >oting  as  she  walked  past  Arlington  in  the 
hall;  and  she  was  alive  to  the  voice  of  Skepsey  presently 
on  the  door-steps.     Arlington  brought  her  a  note. 

Victor  had  written  :  "My  love,  I  dine  with  Blathenoy  in 
the  City,  at  the  Walworth.  Business.  Skepsey  for  clothes. 
Eight  of  us.     Formal.     A  thousand  embraces.     Late." 

Skepsey  was  ushered  in.  His  wife  had  expired  at  noon, 
he  said ;  and  he  postured  decorously  the  grief  he  could  not 
feel,  knowing  that  a  lady  would  expect  it  of  him.  His  wife 
had  fallen  down  stone  steps ;  she  died  in  hospital.  He 
wished  to  say,  she  was  no  loss  to  the  country  ;  but  he  was 
advised  within  of  the  prudence  of  abstaining  from  comment 
and  trusting  to  his  posture,  and  he  squeezed  a  drop  of 
conventional  sensibility  out  of  it,  and  felt  improved. 

Nataly  sent  a  line  to  Victor  :  "  Dearest,  I  go  to  bed  early, 
am  tired.     Dine  well.     Come  to  me  in  the  morning." 

She  reproached  herself  for  coldness  to  poor  Skepsey,  when 
he  had  gone.  The  prospect  of  her  being  alone  until  the 
morning  had  been  so  absorbing  a  relief. 

She  found  a  relief  also  in  woik  at  the  book  of  the  trains. 
A  walk  to  the  telegraph -station  strengthened  her.  Es- 
pecially after  despatching  a  telegram  to  Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby 
at  Cronidge,  and  one  to  Nesta  at  Moorsedge,  did  she  become 
stoutly  nerved.  The  former  was  requested  to  meet  her  at 
Penshurst  station  at  noon.  Nesta  was  to  be  at  the  station 
for  the  Wells  at  three  o'clock. 

From  the  time  of  the  flying  of  these  telegrams,  up  to  the 
tap  of  Victor's  knuckle  on  her  bed-room  door  next  morning, 
she  was  not  more  reflectively  conscious  than  a  packet  travel- 
ling to  its  destination  by  pneumatic  tube.  Nor  was  she 
acutely  impressionable  to  the  features  and  the  voice  she  loved. 


246  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"  You  know  of  Skepsey?  "  she  said. 

"  Ah,  poor  Skepsey !  "     Victor  frowned  and  heaved. 

'*  One  of  us  ought  to  stand  beside  him  at  the  funeral." 

"  Colney  or  Fenellan  ?  " 

'*  I  will  ask  Mr.  Durance." 

"Do,  my  darling." 

*'  Victor,  you  did  not  tell  me  of  Dar trey's  wife." 

"  There  again  !  They  all  get  released  I  Yes,  Dartrey ! 
Dartrey  has  his  luck  too." 

She  closed  her  eyes,  with  the  desire  to  be  asleep. 

44  You  should  have  told  me,  dear." 

"  Well,  my  love !  Well — poor  Dartrey  !  I  fancy  I  hadn't 
a  confirmation  of  the  news.  I  remember  a  horrible  fit  of 
envy  on  hearing  the  hint :  not  much  more  than  a  hint : 
serious  illness,  was  it? — or  expected  event.  Hardly  worth 
while  to  trouble  my  dear  soul,  till  certain.  Anything  about 
wives,  forces  me  to  think  of  myself — my  better  self  1 

44 1  had  to  hear  of  it  first  from  Mrs  Blathenoy." 

"You've  heard  of  duels  in  dark  rooms  : — that  was  the  case 
between  Blathenoy  and  me  last  night  for  an  hour." 

She  feigned  somnolent  fatigue  over  her  feverish  weariness 
of  heart.     He  kissed  her  on  the  forehead. 

Her  spell-bound  intention  to  speak  of  Dudley  Sower  by  to 
him,  was  broken  by  the  sounding  of  the  hail-duor,  thirty 
minutes  later.     She  bad  lain  in  a  trance. 

Life  surged  to  her  with  the  thought,  that  she  could  decide 
and  take  her  step.  Many  were  the  years  back  since  she  had 
taken  a  step;  less  independently  then  than  now;  unre- 
gretted,  if  fatal.  Her  brain  was  heated  for  the  larger  view 
of  things  and  the  swifter  summing  of  them.  It  could  put 
the  man  at  a  remove  from  her  and  say,  that  she  had  lived 
with  him  and  suffered  intensely.  It  gathered  him  to  her 
breast  rejoicing  in  their  union :  the  sharper  the  scourge,  the 
keener  the  exultation.  But  she  had  one  reproach  to  deafen 
and  beat  down.  This  did  not  come  on  her  from  the  world  : 
she  and  the  world  were  too  much  foot  to  foot  on  the  an- 
tagonist's line,  for  her  to  listen  humbly.  It  came  of  her 
quick  summary  survey  of  him,  which  was  unnoticed  by  the 
woman's  present  fiery  mind  as  being  new  or  strange  in  any 
way :  simply  it  was  a  fact  she  now  read;  and  it  directed  her 
to  reproach  herself  for  an  abasement  beneath  his  leadership, 
a  blind  subserviency  and  surrender  of  her  laculties  to  his 


NATALY   IN    ACTION.  247 

greater  powers,  such  as  no  soul  of  a  breathing  body  should 
yield  to  man  :  not  to  the  highest,  not  to  the  Titan,  not  to 
the  most  Godlike  of  men.  Under  cloak,  they  demand  it. 
They  demand  their  bane. 

And  Victor  !  .  .  .  She  had  seen  into  him. 

The  reproach  on  her  was,  that  she,  in  her  worship,  had 
been  slave,  not  helper.  Scarcely  was  she  irreproachable  in 
the  character  of  slave.  If  it  had  been  but  utter  slave  !  she 
phrased  the  words,  for  a  further  reproach.  She  remembered 
having  at  times  murmured,  dissented.  And  it  would  have 
been  a  desperate  proud  thought  to  comfort  a  slave,  that  never 
once  had  she  known  even  a  secret  opposition  to  the  will 
of  her  lord. 

But  she  had:  she  recalled  instances.  Up  they  rose:  np 
rose  everything  her  mind  ranged  over,  subsiding  imme- 
diately when  the  service  was  done.  She  had  not  conceived 
her  beloved  to  be  infallible,  surest  of  guides  in  all  earthly 
matters.     Her  intellect  had  sometimes  protested. 

What,  then,  had  moved  her  to  swamp  it? 

Her  heart  answered.  And  that  heart  also  was  arraigned  : 
and  the  heart's  fleshly  habitation  acting  on  it  besides:  so 
flagellant  of  herself  was  she  :  covertly,  however,  and  as  the 
chaste  among  women  can  consent  to  let  our  animal  face 
them.  Not  grossly,  still  perceptibly  to  her  penetrative  hard 
eye  on  herself,  she  saw  the  senses  of  the  woman  under  a 
charm.  She  saw,  and  swam  whirling  with  a  pang  of  revolt 
from  her  personal  being  and  this  mortal  kind. 

Her  rational  intelligence  righted  her  speedily.  She  could 
say  in  truth,  by  proof,  she  loved  the  man  :  nature's  love, 
heart's  love,  soul's  love.     She  had  given  him  her  life. 

It  was  a  happy  cross-current  recollection,  that  the  very 
begin mng  and  spring  of  this  wild  cast  of  her  life,  issued 
from  something  he  said  and  did  (merest  of  airy  gestures)  to 
signify  the  blessing  of  life — how  good  and  fair  it  is.  A 
drooping  mood  in  her  had  been  struck ;  he  had  a  look  like 
the  winged  lvric  up  in  blue  heavens  :  he  raised  the  head  of 
the  young  flower  from  its  contemplation  of  grave-mould. 
That  was  when  he  had  much  to  bear  :  Mrs.  Burman  present  : 
and  when  the  stranger  in  their  household  had  begun  to  pity 
him  and  have  a  dread  of  her  feelings.  The  lucent  splendour 
of  his  eyes  was  memorable,  a  light  above  the  rolling  oceans 
of  "Time. 


248  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

(She  had  given  Mm  her  life,  little  aid.  She  might  have 
closely  counselled,  wound  in  and  out  with  his  ideas.  Sensible 
of  capacity,  she  confessed  to  the  having  been  morally  sub- 
dued,  physically  as  well ;  swept  onward ;  and  she  was  ar- 
rested now  by  an  accident,  like  a  waif  of  the  river-floods  by 
the  dip  of  a  branch.  Time  that  it  should  be  !  But  was  not 
Mr.  Durance,  inveighing  against  the  favoured  system  for  the 
education  of  women,  right  when  he  declared  them  to  be  un- 
fitted to  speak  an  opinion  on  any  matter  external  to  the  house- 
hold or  in  a  crisis  of  the  household  ?  She  had  not  agreed 
with  him  :  he  presented  stinging  sentences,  which  irritated 
more  than  they  enlightened.  Now  it  seemed  to  her,  that 
the  model  women  of  men  make  pleasant  slaves,  not  true 
mates  :  they  lack  the  worldly  training  to  know  themselves 
or  take  a  grasp  of  circumstances.  There  is  an  exotic  foster 
ing  of  the  senses  for  women,  not  the  strengthening  breath 
of  vital  common  air.  If  good  fortune  is  with  them,  all  may 
go  well :  the  stake  of  their  fates  is  upon  the  perpetual  smooth 
flow  of  good  fortune.  She  had  never  joined  to  the  cry  of 
the  women.  Few  among  them  were  having  it  in  the  breast 
as  loudly. 

Hard  on  herself,  too,  she  perceived  how  the  social  rebel 

had  reduced  her  mind  to  propitiate  a  simulacrum,  reflected 

from  out,  of  an  enthroned  Society  within  it,  by  an  advocacy 

,  of  the    existing   laws   and  rules   and   habits.      Eminently 

J  servile  is  the  tolerated  lawbreaker:   none  so  conservative. 

Not  until  we  are  driven  back  upon  an  unviolated  Nature, 

do  we  call  to  the  intellect  to  think  radically :  and  then  we 

<  begin  to  think  of  our  fellows. 

Or  when  we  have  set  ourselves  in  motion  direct  for  the 
doing  of  the  right  thing:  have  quitted  the  carriage  at  the 
station,  and  secured  the  ticket,  and  enteied  the  train,  count- 
ing the  passage  of  time  for  a  simple  rapid  hour  before  we 
have  eased  heart  in  doing  ju-tice  to  ourse'f  and  to  another; 
then  likewise  the  mind  is  lighted  for  radiation.  That  doing 
of  the  right  thing,  after  a  term  of  paralysis,  cowardice — any 
evil  name — is  one  of  the  mighty  reliefs,  eoual  to  happiness, 
of  longer  duration. 

Nataly  had  it.  But  her  mind  was  actually  radiating,  and 
the  comfort  to  her  heart  evoked  the  image  of  Dartrey  Fenel- 
lan.  She  saw  a  p<>!*sible  reason  for  her  bluntness  to  the 
coming  scene  with  Dudley. 


NATALY  IN    ACTION.  249 

At  once  she  said,  No !  and  closed  the  curtain ;  know- 
ing what  was  "behind,  counting  it-  nought.  8he  repeated 
almost  honestly  her  positive  negative.  How  we  are  mixed 
of  the  many  elements !  she  thought,  as  an  observer ;  and 
self-justifyingly  thought  on,  and  with  truth,  that  duty 
urged  her  upon  this  journey  ;  and  proudly  thought,  that  she 
had  not  a  shock  of  the  painful  great  organ  in  her  breast  at 
the  prospect  at  the  end,  or  any  apprehension  of  its  failure  to 
cany  her  through. 

Yet  the  need  of  peace  or  some  solace  needed  to  prepare 
her  for  the  interview  turned  her  imagination  burningly  on 
Dai  trey.  She  would  not  allow  herself  to  meditate  over 
hopes  and  schemes  : — Nesta  free  :  Dartrey  free.  She  vowed 
to  her  soul  sacredly — and  she  was  one  of  those  in  whom  the 
Divinity  lives,  that  they  may  do  so — not  to  speak  a  word 
for  the  influencing  of  Dudley  save  the  one  fact.  Conse- 
quently, for  a  personal  indulgence,  she  mused ;  she  caressed 
maternally  the  object  of  her  musing ;  of  necessity,  she  ex- 
cluded Nesta ;  but  in  tenderness  she  gave  Dartrey  a  fair  one 
to  love  him. 

The  scene  was  waved  away.  That  one  so  loving  him, 
partly  worthy  of  him,  ready  to  traverse  the  world  now 
beside  him — who  could  it  be  other  than  she  who  knew  and 
prized  his  worth  ?  Foolish !  It  is  one  of  the  hatefuller 
scourges  upon  women  whenever,  a  little  shaken  themselves, 
they  muse  upon  some  man's  image,  that  they  cannot  put  in 
motion  the  least  bit  of  drama  without  letting  feminine  self 
play  a  part;  generally  to  develop  into  a  principal  part. 
The  apology  makes  it  a  melancholy  part. 

Dartrey 's  temper  of  the  caged  lion  dominated  by  his 
tamer,  served  as  key-note  for  any  amount  of  saddest  colour- 
ing. He  controlled  the  brute  :  but  he  held  the  contempt  of 
danger,  the  love  of  strife,  the  passion  for  adventure  ;  he  had 
crossed  the  desert  of  human  anguish.  He  of  all  men  required 
a  devoted  mate,  merited  her.  Of  all  men  living,  he  was  the 
hardest  to  match  with  a  woman—  with  a  woman  deserving 
him. 

The  train  had  quitted  London.  Now  for  the  country, 
now  for  free  breathing !  She  who  two  days  back  had  come 
from  Alps,  delighted  in  the  look  on  flat  green  fields.  It  was 
under  the  hallucination  of  her  saying  inflight  adieu  to  them, 
and  to  England ;  and,  that  somewhere  hidden,  to  be  found 


250  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

in  Asia,  Africa,  America,  was  the  man  whose  ideal  of  life 
was  higher  than  enjoyment.  His  caged  brute  of  a  temper 
offered  opportunities  for  delicious  petting ;  the  sweetest  a 
woman  can  bestow :  it  lifts  her  out  of  timidity  into  an 
adoration  still  palpitatingly  fearful.  Ah,  but  familiarity, 
knowledge,  confirmed  assurance  of  his  character,  lift  her  to 
another  stage,  above  the  pleasures.  May  she  not  prove  to 
him  how  really  matched  with  him  she  is,  to  disdain  the 
pleasures,  cheerfully  accept  the  burdens,  meet  death,  if  need 
be ;  readily  face  it  as  the  quietly  grey  to-morrow :  at  least, 
show  herself  to  her  hero  for  a  woman — the  incredible  being 
to  most  men — who  treads  the  terrors  as  well  as  the  pleasures 
of  humanity  beneath  her  feet,  and  may  therefore  have  some 
pride  in  her  stature.  Ay,  but  only  to  feel  the  pride  of 
standing  not  so  shamefully  below  his  level  beside  him. 

Woods  weie  flying  past  the  carriage-windows.  Her  soli- 
tary companion  was  of  the  class  of  the  admiring  gentlemen. 
Presently  he  spoke.  She  answered.  He  spoke  again.  Her 
mouth  smiled,  and  her  accompanying  look  of  abstract  bene- 
volence arrested  the  tentative  allurement  to  conversation. 

New  ideas  were  set  revolving  in  her.  Dartrey  and  Victor 
grew  to  a  likeness ;  they  became  hazily  one  man,  and  the 
mingled  phantom  complimented  her  on  her  preserving  a 
good  share  of  the  beauty  of  her  youth.  The  face  perhaps : 
the  figure  rather  too  well  suits  the  years !  she  replied.  To 
reassuie  her,  this  Dartrey- Victor  drew  her  close  and  kissed 
her;  and  she  was  confused  and  passed  into  the  breast  of 
Mrs.  Burman  expecting  an  operation  at  the  hands  of  the 
surgeons.  The  train  had  stopped.  "  Penshurst  ? "  she 
said. 

"  Penshurst  is  the  next  station,"  said  the  gentleman.  Here 
was  a  theme  for  him!  The  stately  mansion,  the  noble 
grounds,  and  Sidney !  He  discoursed  of  them.  The  hand- 
some lady  appeared  interested.  She  was  interested  also  by 
his  description  of  a  neighbouring  village,  likely  one  hundred 
years  hence  to  be  a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  Americans  and 
far  Australians.  Age,  he  said,  improves  true  beauty;  and 
his  eyelids  indicated  a  levelling  to  perform  the  soft  intent- 
ness.  Mechanically,  a  ball  rose  in  her  throat ;  the  remark 
was  illuminated  by  a  saying  of  Colney's,  with  regard  to  his 
countrymen  at  the  play  of  courtship.  No  laughter  came. 
The  gentleman  talked  on. 


NATALY   IN    ACTION.  251 

All  fancies  and  internal  communications  left  her.  Slow- 
ness of  motion  brought  her  to  the  plain  piece  of  work  she  had 
to  do,  on  a  colourless  earth,  that  seemed  foggy;  but  one 
could  see  one's  way.  Eesolution  is  a  form  of  light,  our 
native  light  in  this  dubious  world. 

Dudley  Sowerby  opened  her  carriage-door.     They  greeted. 

**  You  have  seen  Nesta  ?"  she  said. 

"Not  for  two  days.  You  have  not  heard?  The  Miss 
Duvidneys  have  gone  to  Brighton." 

*•  They  are  rather  in  advance  of  the  Season." 

She  thanked  him  for  meeting  her.  He  was  grateful  for 
the  summons. 

Informing  the  mother  of  his  betrothed,  that  he  had  ridden 
over  from  Cronidge,  he  speculated  on  the  place  to  select  for 
her  luncheon,  and  he  spoke  of  his  horse  being  led  up  and 
down  outside  the  station.  Nataly  inquired  for  the  hour  of 
the  next  train  to  London.  He  called  to  one  of  the  porters, 
obtained  and  imparted  the  time ;  evidently  now,  as  shown 
by  an  unevenness  of  his  lifted  brows,  expecting  news  of 
eome  little  weight. 

"  YTour  husband  is  quite  well  ?  "  he  said,  in  affection  for 
the  name  of  husband. 

"Mr.  Eadnor  is  well;  I  have  to  speak  to  you;  I  have 
more  than  time." 

"  You  will  lunch  at  the  inn  ?  " 

"  I  shall  not  eat.     We  will  walk." 

They  crossed  the  road  and  passed  under  trees. 

"  My  mother  was  to  have  called  on  the  Miss  Duvidneys. 
They  left  hurriedly  ;  I  think  it  was  unanticipated  by  Nesta. 
I  venture  .  .  .  you  pardon  the  liberty  .  .  .  she  allows  me 
to  entertain  hopes.  Mr.  Kadnor,  I  am  hardly  too  bold  in 
thinking  ...  I  trust,  in  appealing  to  you  ...  at  least  I 
can  promise." 

"  Mr.  Sowerby,  yon  have  done  my  daughter  the  honour  to 
ask  her  hand  in  marriage." 

He  said  :  "  I  have,"  and  had  much  to  say  besides,  but 
deferred:  a  blow  was  visible.  The  lather  had  been  more 
enc  >ur?iging  to  him  than  the  mother. 

**  You  have  not  known  of  any  circumstance  that  might 
cause  hesitation  in  asking  ?  " 

"  Miss  Eadnor  ?  " 

•'My  daughter : — you  have  to  think  of  your  family." 


252  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"  Indeed,  Mrs.  Radnor,  I  was  coming  to  London  to-morrow, 
with  the  consent  of  my  family." 

"  You  address  me  as  Mrs.  Radnor.  I  have  not  the  legal 
right  to  the  name." 

"  Not  legal !  "  said  he,  with  a  catch  at  the  word. 

He  spnn  round  in  her  sight,  though  his  demeanour  was 
manfully  rigid. 

'•  Havel  understood,  madam?  .  .  ." 

"  You  would  not  request  me  to  repeat  it.  Is  that  your 
horse  the  man  is  leading?  " 

••  My  horse :  it  must  be  my  horse." 

"Mount  and  ride  back.  Leave  me:  I  shall  not  eat.  Re- 
flect, by  yourself.  You  are  in  the  position  of  one  who  is  not 
allowed  to  decide  by  his  feelings.  Mr.  Radnor  you  know 
where  to  find." 

"But  surely,  some  food  ?   I  cannot  have  misapprehended?" 

"  I  cannot  eat.     1  think  you  have  understood  me  clearly." 

"  You  wish  me  to  go  ?  " 

"I  beg." 

"  It  pains  me,  dear  madam." 

"  It  relieves  me,  if  you  will.     Here  is  your  horse." 

She  gave  her  hand.  He  touched  it  and  bent.  He  looked 
at  her.  A  surge  of  impossible  questions  rolled  to  his  mouth 
and  rolled  back,  with  the  thought  of  an  incredible  thing,  that 
her  manner,  more  than  her  words,  held  him  from  doubting. 

"I  obev  you,"  he  said. 

"  You  are  kind." 

He  mounted  horse,  raised  hat,  paced  on,  and  again  bowing, 
to  one  of  the  wayside  trees,  cantered.  The  man  was  gone  ; 
but  not  from  Nataly's  vision  that  face  of  wet  chalk  under 
one  of  the  shades  of  fire. 


(    253    ) 


CHAPTER  XXYI. 

IN   WHICH   WE    SEE    A   CONVENTIONAL    GENTLEMAN    ENDEAVOURING 
TO   EXAMINE   A   SPECTRE   OF    HIMSELF. 

Dudley  rode  back  to  Cronidge  with  his  thunderstroke.  It 
filled  him,  as  in  those  halls  of  political  clamour,  where  ex- 
planatory speech  is  not  accepted,  because  of  a  drowning  tide 
of  hot  blood  on  both  sides.  He  sought  to  win  attention  by 
submitting  a  resolution,  to  the  effect,  that  he  would  the  next 
morning  enter  into  the  presence  of  Mr.  Victor  Radnor,  bear- 
ing his  family's  feelings,  for  a  discussion  upon  them.  But 
the  brutish  tumult,  in  addition  to  surcharging,  encased  him : 
he  could  not  rightly  conceive  the  natuie  of  f.  elings :  men 
were  driving  shoals;  he  had  lost  hearing  and  touch  of 
individual  men;  had  become  a  house  of  angrily  opposing 
parties. 

He  was  hurt,  he  knew ;  and  therefore  he  supposed  himself 
injured,  though  there  were  contrary  outcries,  and  he  admitted 
that  he  stood  free;  he  had  not  been  inextricably  deceived. 

The  girl  was  caught  away  to  the  thinnest  of  wisps  in  a 
dust-whirl.  Reverting  to  the  father  and  mother,  his  idea  of 
a  positive  injury,  that  was  not  without  its  congratulations, 
sank  him  down  among  his  disordered  deeper  sentiments; 
which  were  a  diver's  wreck,  where  an  armoured  livid  subter- 
marine,  a  monstrous  puff-ball  of  man,  wandered  seriously 
light  in  heaviness;  trebling  his  hundredweights  to  keep 
him  from  dancing  like  a  bladder-block  of  elastic  lumber; 
thinking  occasionally,  amid  the  mournful  spectacle,  of  the 
atmospheric  pipe  of  communication  with  the  world  above, 
whereby  he  was  deafened  yet  sustained.  One  tug  at  it,  and 
he  was  up  on  the  surface,  disengaged  from  the  hideous 
harness,  joyfully  no  more  that  burly  phantom  cleaving 
green  slime,  free!  and  the  roaring  stopped;  the  world  looked 
flat,  foreign,  a  place  of  crusty  promise.  His  wreck,  animated 
by  the  dim  strange  fish  below,  appeared  fairer;  it  winked 
lureiully  when  abandoned. 

The  internal  state  of  a  gentleman  who  detested  intangible 
metaphor  as  heartily  as  the  vulgarest  of  our  gobble-gobbets 
haie  it,  metaphor  only  can  describe;  and  for  the  reason,  that 


254  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

he  had  in  him  just  something  more  than  is  within  the  com- 
pass of  the  language  of  the  meat-markets.  He  had — and 
had  it  not  the  less  because  he  fain  would  not  have  had — • 
sufficient  stuff  to  furnish  forth  a  soul's  epic  encounter  be- 
tween Nature  and  Circumstance :  and  metaphor,  simile, 
analysis,  all  the  fraternity  of  old  lamps  for  lighting  our 
abysmal  darkness,  have  to  be  rubbed,  that  we  may  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  fray. 

Free,  and  rejoicing ;  without  the  wish  to  be  free ;  at  the 
same  time  humbly  and  (sadly  acquiescing  in  the  stronger 
claim  of  his  family  to  pronounce  the  decision  :  such  was  the 
second  stage  of  Dudley's  perturbation  after  the  blow.  A 
letter  of  Nesta's  writing  was  in  his  pocket :  he  knew  her 
address.  He  could  not  reply  to  her  until  he  had  seen  her 
father :  and  that  interview  remained  necessarily  prospective 
until  he  had  come  to  his  exact  lesolve,  not  omitting  his 
critical  approval  of  the  sentences  giving  it  shape,  stamp, 
dignity — a  noble's  crest,  as  it  were. 

Nesta  wrote  briefly.  The  apostrophe  was,  "  Dear  Mr. 
Sowerby."  She  had  engaged  to  send  her  address.  Her  father 
had  just  gone.  The  Miss  Duvidneys  had  left  the  hotel  yester- 
day for  the  furnished  house  facing  the  sea.  According  to 
arrangements,  she  had  a  livery-stable  hack,  and  had  that 
morning  trotted  out  to  the  downs  with  a  riding-master  and 
company,  one  of  whom  was  "  an  agreeable  lady." 

He  noticed  approvingly  her  avoidance  of  an  allusion  to  the 
'Delphica'  of  Mr.  Durance's  incomprehensible  serial  story, 
or  whatever  it  was ;  which,  as  he  had  shown  her,  annoyed 
him,  for  its  being  neither  fact  nor  fun ;  and  she  had  insisted 
on  the  fun  ;  and  he  had  painfully  tried  to  see  it  or  anything 
of  a  meaning ;  and  it  seemed  to  him  now,  that  he  had  been 
humiliated  by  the  obedience  to  her  lead:  she  had  offended 
by  her  harping  upon  Delphica.  However,  here  it  was  un- 
mentioned.  He  held  the  letter  out  to  seize  it  in  the  large, 
entire. 

Her  handwriting  was  good,  as  good  as  the  writing  of  the 
most  agreeable  lady  on  earth.  Dudley  did  not  blame  her 
for  letting  the  lady  be  deceived  in  her— if  she  knew  her 
position.  She  might  be  ignorant  of  it.  And  to  strangers, 
to  chance  acquaintances,  even  to  friends,  the  position,  of 
the  loathsome  name,  was  not  materially  important.  Marriage 
altered  the  view.     He  sided  with  his  family. 


A    CONVENTIONAL    GENTLEMAN.  255 

He  sided,  edgeing  away,  against  his  family.  But  a  vision 
of  the  earldom  coming  to  him,  stirred  reverential  objections, 
composed  of  all  which  his  unstained  family  could  protest  in 
religion,  to  repudiate  an  alliance  with  a  stained  house,  and 
the  guilty  of  a  condonation  of  immorality.  Who  would 
have  imagined  Mr.  Radnor  a  private  sinner  flaunting  for 
one  of  the  righteous?  And  she,  the  mother,  a  lady-  quite  a 
lady  ;  having  really  a  sense  of  duty,  sense  of  honour  !  That 
she  must  be  a  lady,  Dudley  was  convinced.  He  beheld 
through  a  porous  crape,  woven  of  formal  respectfulness, 
with  threads  of  personal  disgust,  the  scene,  striking  him 
drearly  like  a  distant  great  mansion's  conflagration  across 
moorland  at  midnight,  of  a  lady's  breach  of  bonds  and 
plunge  of  all  for  love.  How  had  it  been  concealed?  In 
Dudley's  upper  sphere,  everything  was  exposed :  Scandal 
walked  naked  and  unashamed — figurante  of  the  polite  world. 
But  still  this  lady  was  of  the  mint  and  coin,  a  true  lady. 
Handsome  now,  she  must  have  been  beautiful.  And  a  com 
prehensible  pride  (for  so  would  Dudley  have  borne  it)  keeps 
the  forsaken  man  silent  up  to  death :  .  .  .  grandly  tilent ; 
but  the  loss  of  such  a  woman  is  enough  to  kill  a  man  !  Not 
in  time,  though !  Legitimacy  evidently,  by  the  mother's 
confession,  cannot  protect  where  it  is  wanted.  Dudley  was 
optically  affected  by  a  lound  spot  of  the  world  swinging  its 
shadow  over  Nesta. 

He  pitied,  and  strove  to  be  sensible  of  her.  The  effort 
succeeded  so  well,  that  he  was  presently  striving  to  be 
insensible.  The  former  state,  was  the  mounting  of  a  wall ; 
the  latter,  was  a  sinking  through  a  chasm.  There  would 
be  family  consultations,  abhorrent;  his  father's  agonized 
amazement  at  the  problem  presented  to  a  family  of  scrupulous 
principles  and  pecuniary  requirements;  his  mother's  blunt 
mention  of  the  abominable  name — mediasvally  vindicated  in 
champions  of  certain  princely  families  indeed,  but  morally 
condemned  ;  always  under  condemnation  of  the  Church  •  a 
blot :  and  handed  down :  Posterity,  and  it  might  be  a  titled 
posterity,  crying  out.  A  man  in  the  situation  of  Dudley 
could  not  think  solely  of  himself.  The  nobles  of  the  land 
are  bound  in  honour  to  their  posterity.  There  you  have 
one  of  the  prominent  permanent  distinctions  between  them 
and  the  commonalty. 

His  mother  would  again  propose  her  chosen  bride  for  him: 


256  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Edith  Averst,  with  the  dowry  of  a  present  one  thousand 
pounds  per  annum,  and  prospect  of  six  or  so,  excluding  Sir 
John's  estate,  Carping,  in  Leicestershire  ;  a  fair  estate,  likely 
to  fall  to  Edith ;  consumption  seized  her  brothers  as  they 
ripened.  A  fair  girl  too  ;  only  Dudley  did  not  love  her  ;  he 
wanted  to  love.  He  was  learning  the  trick  from  this  other 
one,  who  had  become  obscured  and  diminished,  tainted,  to 
the  thought  of  her;  yet  not  extinct.  Sight  of  her  was  to 
be  dreaded. 

Un guiltily  tainted,  in  herself  she  was  innocent.  That 
constituted  the  unhappy  invitation  to  him  to  swallow  one 
half  of  his  feelings,  which  had  his  world's  blessing  on  it,  fur 
the  beneficial  enlargement  and  enthronement  of  the  baser 
unblest  half,  which  he  hugged  and  distrusted.  Can  in- 
nocence issue  of  the  guilty  ?  He  asked  it,  hopeing  it  might 
be  possible :  he  had  been  educated  in  his  family  to  believe, 
that,  the  laws  governing  human  institutions  are  divine — 
until  History  has  altered  them.  They  are  altered,  to  present 
a  fresh  bulwark  against  the  infidel.  His  conservative  mind, 
retiring  in  good  order,  occupied  the  next  rearward  post  of 
resistance.  Secretly  behind  it,  the  man  was  proud  of  having 
a  hearr,  to  beat  for  the  cause  of  the  besiegeing  enemy,  in 
the  present  instance.  When  this  was  blabbed  to  him,  and 
he  had  owned  it,  he  attributed  his  weakness  to  excess  of 
nature,  the  liking  for  a  fair  face. — Oh,  but  more!  spirit  was 
in  the  sweet  eyes.  She  led  him — she  did  lead  him  in 
spiritual  things;  led  him  out  of  common  circles  of  thought, 
into  refreshing  new  spheres  ;  he  had  reminiscences  of  his 
having  relished  the  juices  of  the  not  quite  obviously  comic, 
through  her  indications:  and  really,  in  spite  of  her  inferior 
flimsy  girl's  education,  she  could  boast  her  acquirements; 
she  was  quick,  startlingly;  modest,  too,  in  commerce  with 
a  slower  mind  thai  carried  more;  though  she  laughed  and 
was  a  needle  for  humour:  she  taught  him  at  times  to  put 
away  his  contempt  of  the  romantic;  she  had  actually  shown 
him,  that  his  expressed  contempt  of  it  disguised  a  dread  : 
as  it  did,  and  he  was  conscious  of  the  foolishness  of  it  now 
while  pursuing  her  image,  while  his  intelligence  and  senses 
gave  her  the  form  and  glory  of  young  inorniug. 

Wariness  counselled  him  to  think  it  might  be  merely  the 
play  of  her  youth;  and  also  the  disposition  of  a  man  in 
harness   of  business,  exaggeratingly  to   prize  an   imagined 


▲   CONVENTIONAL   GENTLEMAN.  257 

finding  of  the  complementary  feminine  of  himself.  Vene- 
rating purity  as  he  did,  the  question,  whether  the  very 
sweetest  of  pure  young  women,  having  such  an  origin,  must 
not  at  some  time  or  other  show  trace  of  the  origin,  surged 
up.  If  he  could  only  have  been  sure  of  her  moral  exemption 
from  taint,  a  generous  ardour,  in  reserve  behind  his  anxious 
dubieties,  would  have  precipitated  Dudley  to  quench  dis- 
approbation and  brave  the  world  under  a  buckler  of  those 
monetary  advantages,  which  he  had  but  stoutly  to  plead 
with  the  House  of  Cantor,  for  the  speedy  overcoming  of  a 
reluctance  to  receive  the  nameless  girl  and  prodigious 
heiress.  His  family's  instruction  of  him,  and  his  inherited 
tastes,  rendered  the  aspect  of  a  Nature  stripped  of  the 
clothing  of  the  laws  offensive  down  to  devilish :  we  grant 
her  certain  steps,  upon  certain  conditions  accompanied  by 
ceremonies;  and  when  she  violates  them,  she  becomes  visibly 
again  the  revolutionary  wicked  old  beast  bent  on  levelling 
our  sacredest  edifices.  An  alliance  with  any  of  her  votaries, 
appeared  to  Dudley  as  an  act  of  treason  to  his  house,  his 
class,  and  his  tenets.  And  nevertheless  he  was  haunted  by 
a  cry  of  criminal  happiness  for  and  at  the  commission  of  the 
act.  He  would  not  decide  to  be  '  precipitate,'  and  the  days 
ran  their  course,  until  Lady  Grace  Halley  arrived  at 
Cronidge,  a  widow.  Lady  Cantor  spoke  to  her  of  Dudley's 
unfathomable  gloom.     Lady  Grace  took  him  aside. 

She  said,  without  preface :  "  You've  heard,  have  you  ! " 

"You  were  aware  of  it?"  said  he,  and  his  tone  was 
irritable  with  a  rebuke. 

**  Coming  through  town,  for  the  first  time  yesterday.  I 
had  it — of  all  men ! — from  a  Sir  Abraham  Quatley,  to  whom 
I  was  recommended  to  go,  about  my -husband's  shares  in  a 
South  American  Eailway ;  and  we  talked,  and  it  came  out. 
He  knows ;  he  says,  it  is  not  generally  known  ;  and  he  likes, 
respects  Mr.  Victor  Eadnor;  we  are  to  keep  the  secret. 
Hum?  He  had  heard  of  your  pretensions ;  and  our  relation- 
ship, etc. :  '  esteemed '  it — you  know  the  City  dialect — his 
duty  to  mention,  etc.  That  was  after  I  had  spied  on  his 
forehead  the  something  I  wormed  out  of  his  mouth.  What 
are  you  going  to  do  ?  " 

"  What  can  I  do ! " 

"  Are  you  fond  of  the  girl  ?  " 

An  attachment  was  indicated,  as  belonging  to  the  case. 


258  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUEROR3. 

She  was  not  a  woman  to  whom  the  breathing  of  pastoral 
passion  would  be  suitable;  yet  he  saw  that  she  despised 
him  for  a  lover ;  and  still  she  professed  to  understand  his 
dilemma.  Perplexity  at  the  injustice  of  fate  and  persons 
-universally,  put  a  wrinkled  mask  on  his  features  and  the 
expression  of  his  feelings.  They  were  torn,  and  the  world 
was  torn;  and  what  he  wanted,  was  delay,  time  for  him  to 
define  his  feelings  and  behold  a  reoompused  picture  of  the 
world.  He  had  already  taken  six  days.  He  pleaded  the 
shock  to  his  family. 

"  You  won't  have  such  a  chance  again,'  she  said.  Shrugs 
had  set  in. 

They  agreed  as  to  the  behaviour  of  the  girl's  mother.  It 
reflected  on  the  father,  he  thought. 

"  Difficult  thing  to  proclaim,  before  an  engagement !  * 
Her  shoulders  were  restless. 

"When  a  man's  feelings  get  entangled  !" 

"  Oh  !   a   man's   feelings  !     I'm   your  British   Jury  for  a 
woman's." 
'  "  He  has  married  her  ?  " 

She  declared  to  not  knowing  particulars.  She  could  fib 
smoothly. 

The  next  day  she  was  on  the  line  to  London,  armed  with 
the  proposal  of  an  appointment  for  the  Hon.  Dudley  to  mee^ 
"  the  girl's  father." 


CHAPTEE  XXVII. 

CONTAINS   WHAT   IS   A   SMALL    THTNG   OR  A   GREAT,    AS  THE 
SOUL   OF   THE   CHIEF   ACTOR   MAY   DECIDE. 

Skepsey  ushered  Lady  Grace  into  his  master's  private  room, 
and  entertained  her  during  his  masters  absence,  lie  had 
buried  his  wife,  he  said :  she  feared,  seeing  his  posture  of 
the  soaping  of  hands  at  one  shoulder,  that  he  was  about  to 
bewail  it;  and  he  did  wish  to  talk  of  it,  to  show  his  modest 
companionship  with  her  in  loss,  and  how  a  consolation  for 
our  sorrows  may  be  obtained  :  but  lie  won  her  approval,  by 
taking  the  acceptable  course  between  the  dues  to  the  subject 


A  SMALL  THING  OR  A  GREAT.  259 

and  those  to  his  hearer,  as  a  model  cab  should  drive  con- 
siderate equally  of  horse  and  fare. 

A  day  of  holiday  at  Hampstead,  after  the  lowering  of  the 
poor  woman's  bones  into  earth,  had  been  followed  by  a 
descent  upon  London  ;  and  at  night  he  had  found  himself  in 
the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  a  public  house,  noted  for 
sparring  exhibitions  and  instructions  on  the  first  floor :  and 
he  was  melancholy,  unable  quite  to  disperse  "  the  ravens  " 
flocking  to  us  on  such  days :  though,  if  we  ask  why  we 
have  to  go  out  of  the  world,  there  is  a  corresponding  inquiry, 
of  what  good  was  our  coining  into  it;  and  unless  we  are 
doing  good  work  for  our  country,  the  answer  is  not  satis- 
factory— except,  that  we  are  as  well  gone.  Thinking  which, 
he  was  accosted  by  a  young  woman  :  perfectly  respectable, 
in  every  way :  who  inquired  if  he  had  seen  a  young  man 
enter  the  door.  She  described  him,  and  reviled  the  temp- 
tations of  those  houses ;  and  ultimately,  as  she  insisted  upon 
going  in  to  look  for  the  young  man  and  use  her  persuasions 
to  withdraw  him  from  "  that  snare  of  Satan,"  he  had  accom- 
panied her,  and  he  had  gone  upstairs  and  brought  the  }'oung 
man  down.  But  friends,  or  the  acquaintances  they  call 
friends,  were  with  him,  and  they  were  "  in  drink,"  and 
abused  the  young  woman ;  and  she  had  her  hand  on  the 
young  man's  arm,  quoting  Scripture.  Sad  to  relate  of  men 
bearing  the  name  of  Englishmen — and  it  was  hardly  much 
better  if  they  pleaded  intoxication ! — they  were  not  content 
to  tear  the  young  man  from  her  grasp,  they  hustled  her, 
pushed  her  out,  dragged  her  in  the  street.  "  It  became  me 
to  step  to  her  defence:  she  was  meek,"  said  Skt-psey.  "  She 
had  a  great  opinion  of  the  efficacy  of  quotations  from  Scrip- 
ture; she  did  not  recriminate.  I  was  able  to  release  her  and 
the  young  man  she  protected,  on  condition  of  my  going 
upstairs  to  give  a  display  of  my  proficiency.  I  had  assured 
chem,  that  the  poor  fellows  who  stood  against  me  were  not 
a  proper  match.  And  of  course,  they  jeered,  but  they  had 
the  evidence,  on  the  pavement.  So  I  went  up  with  them, 
1  was  heavily  oppressed,  I  wanted  relief,  I  put  on  the  gloves. 
He  was  a  bigger  man;  they  laughed  at  the  little  one.  I 
told  them,  it  depended  upon  a  knowledge  of  first  principles, 
and  the  power  to  apply  them.  I  will  not  boast,  my  lady  : 
my  junior  by  ten  years,  the  man  went  down  ;  he  went  down 
a  second  time ;  and  the  men  seemed  surprised ;  I  told  them, 


260  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

it  was  nothing  "but  first  principles  put  into  action.  I  mention 
the  incident,  for  the  extreme  relief  it  afforded  me  at  the  close 
of  a  dark  day." 

"  So  yon  cured  your  grief !  "  said  Lady  Grace ;  and  Skepsey 
made  way  for  his  master. 

Victor's  festival-lights  were  kindled,  beholding  her ;  cressets 
on  the  window-sill,  lamps  inside. 

"Am  I  so  welcome?"  There  was  a  pull  of  emotion  at 
her  smile.  "  What  with  your  little  factotum  and  you,  we 
are  flattered  to  perdition  when  we  come  here.  He  has  been 
proposing,  by  suggestion,  like  a  Court-physician,  the  putting 
on  of  his  boxing-gloves,  for  the  consolation  of  the  widowed  : — 
meant  most  kindly  !  and  it's  a  thousand  pities  women  haven't 
their  padded  gloves." 

"  Oh !  but  our  boxing-gloves  can  do  mischief  enough.  You 
have  something  to  say,  I  see." 

" How  do  you  see?  " 

"  Tush,  tush." 

The  silly  ring  of  her  voice  and  the  pathless  tattle  changed , 
she  talked  to  suit  her  laden  look.  "  You  hit  it.  I  come 
from  Dudley.  He  knows  the  facts.  I  wish  to  serve  you,  in 
every  way." 

Victor's  head  had  lifted, 

«'  Who  was  it?" 

"No  enemy." 

"Who?" 

"  Her  mother.     She  did  rightly." 

"Certainly  she  did,"  said  Victor,  and  he  thought  that 
instantaneously  of  the  thing  done.  "  Oh,  then  she  spoke  to 
him !  She  has  kept  it  from  me.  For  now  nearly  a  week — 
six  days — I've  seen  her  spying  for  something  she  expected, 
like  a  face  behind  a  door  three  inches  ajar.  She  has  not  been 
half  alive  ;  she  refused  explanations  ; — she  was  expecting  to 
hear  from  him,  of  him — the  decision,  whatever  it's  to  be  !  " 

"  I  can't  aid  you  there,"  said  Lady  Grace.  "  He's  one  of 
the  unreadables.     He  names  Tuesday  next  week." 

"  By  all  means." 

"She?" 

"  Fredi  ? — poor  Fredi ! — ah,  my  poor  girl,  yes  ! — No,  she 
knows  nothing.  Here  is  the  truth  of  it: — she,  the  legiti- 
mate, lives  :  they  say  she  lives.  Well,  then,  she  lives 
against  all  rules  physical  or  niedbal,  lives  by  sheer  force  ot 


A   SMALL   THING   OR   A   GREAT.  261 

win — it's  a  miracle  of  the  power  of  a  human  creafure  to  .  .  . 
I  have  it  from  doctors,  friends,  attendants,  they  can't  jruess 
what  she  holds  on,  to  keep  her  breath. — All  the  happiness  in 
life  ! — if  only  it  could  benefit  her.  But  it's  the  cause  of 
death  to  us.  Do  you  see,  dear  friend; — you  are  a  friend, 
proved  friend,"  he  took  her  hand,  and  held  and  pres-ed  it, 
in  great  need  of  a  sanguine  response  to  emphasis;  and 
having  this  warm  feminine  hand,  his  ideas  ran  off  with  it. 
"  The  friend  I  need !  You  have  courage.  My  Nataly,  poor 
dear — she  can  endure,  in  her  quiet  way.  A  woman  of 
courage  would  take  her  place  beside  me  and  compel  the 
world  to  do  her  homage,  help  ; — a  bright  ready  smile  does 
it !  She  would  never  be  beaten.  Of  course,  we  could  have 
lived  under  a  bushel — stifled  next  to  death  !  But  I  am  for 
light,  air — battle,  if  you  like.     I  want  a  comrade,  not  a 

not  that  I  complain.     I  respect,  pity,  love — I  do  love 

her,  honour  :  only,  we  want  somethiug  el-e — courage — to 
face  the  enemy.  Quite  right,  that  she  should  speak  to  Dudley 
Sowerby.  He  has  to  know,  must  know ;  all  who  <Jeal  closely 
with  us  must  know.  But  see  a  moment :  I  am  waiting  to 
see  the  impediment  dispersed,  which  puts  her  at  an  inequality 
with  the  world :  and  then  I  speak  to  all  whom  it  concerns : 
not  before :  for  her  sake.  How  is  it  now  ?  Dudley  will 
ask  .  .  .  you  understand.  And  when  I  am  forced  to  con- 
fess, that  the  mother,  the  mother  of  the  girl  he  seeks  in 
marriage,  is  not  yet  in  that  state  herself,  probably  at  that 
very  instant  the  obstacle  has  crumbled  to  du*t!  I  say, 
probably  :  I  have  information — doctors,  friends,  attendants — 
they  all  declare  it  cannot  last  outside  a  week.  But  you  are 
here — true,  I  could  swear !  a  touch  of  a  hand  tells  me.  A 
woman's  hand?  Well,  yes  :  I  read  by  the  touch  of  a  woman's 
hand : — betrays  more  than  her  looks  or  her  lips  !  "  He  sank 
his  voice.  "  I  don't  talk  of  condoling :  if  you  are  in  grief, 
you  know  I  share  it."  He  kissed  her  hand,  and  laid  it  on 
her  lap ;  eyed  it,  and  met  her  eyes ;  took  a  header  into  her 
eyes,  and  lost  himself.  A  nip  of  his  conscience  moved  his 
tongue  to  say :  "  As  for  guilt,  if  it  were  known  ...  a 
couple  of  ascetics — absolutely  ! "  But  this  was  assumed  to 
be  unintelligible ;  and  it  was  merely  the  apology  to  his  con- 
science in  communion  with  the  sprite  of  a  petticoated  fair 
one  who  was  being  subjected  to  tender  little  liberties,  neces- 
sarily addressed  in  enigmas.     He  lighted  immediately,  under 


■f 


262  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

a  perception  of  the  thoroughbred's  contempt  for  the  bairiera 
of  wattled  sheep ;  and  caught  the  word  "  guilt,"  to  hide  the 
Thilistine  citizen's  lapse,  by  relating  historically,  in  abridge- 
ment, the  honest  beauty  of  the  passionate  loves  of  the  two 
whom  the  world  proscribed  for  honestly  loving*  There  was 
no  guilt.  He  harped  on  the  word,  to  erase  the  recollection 
of  Ins  first  use  of  it. 

"  Fiddle."  said  Ladv  Grace.  "  The  thing  happened.  You 
have  now  to  carry  it  through.  You  require  a  woman's  aid 
in  a  social  matter.  Rely  on  me,  f«T  what  I  can  do.  You 
will  see  Dudley  on  Tuesday  ?  I  will  write?.  Be  plain  with 
him  ;  not  forgetting  the  gilding,  1  need  not  remark.  Your 
Nesta  has  no  aversion  ?  " 

44  Admires,  respects,  likes  ;  is  quite — is  willing." 

4t  Good  enough  beginning."  She  rose,  for  the  atmosphere 
was  heated,  rather  heavy.  4'  And  if  one  proves  to  be  of  aid, 
you'll  own  that  a  woman  has  her  place  in  the  battle." 

The  fair  black-clad  widow's  quick  and  singular  inter- 
wreathing  of  the  evanescent  pretty  pouts  and  frowns  dimpled 
like  the  brush  of  the  wind  on  a  sunny  pool  in  a  shady  place; 
and  her  forehead  was  close  below  his  chin,  her  lips  not  far. 
Her  apparel  was  attractively  mourning.  Widows  in  mourn- 
ing, when  they  do  not  lean  over  extremely  to  the  Stygian 
shore,  with  the  complexions'  of  the  drugs  which  expedited 
the  defunct  to  the  terry,  provoke  the  manly  arm  within 
reach  of  them  to  pluck  their  pathetic  blooming  persons  clean 
away  from  it.  What  of  the  widow  who  visibly  likes  the 
living?  Compassion,  sympathy,  impulse;  and  gratitude, 
impulse  again,  living  warmth;  and  a  spring  of  the  blood  to 
wrestle  with  the  King  of  Terrors  for  the  other  poor  harper's 
half-nightcapped  Eur\  dice ;  and  a  thirst,  sudden  as  it  is 
overpowering;  and  the  solicitude,  a  reflective  solicitude,  to 
put  the  seal  on  a  thing  and  call  it  a  fact,  to  the  astonishment 
of  history;  and  a  kick  of  our  naughty  youth  in  its  coffin  ;  — 
all  the  insurgencies  of  Nature,  with  her  colonel  of  the  regi- 
ment absent,  and  her  veering  trick  to  drive  two  vessels  at 
the  cross  of  a  track  into  collision,  combine  for  doing  that, 
which  is  very  much  more,  and  which  atfects  us  at  the  time 
so  much  less  than  did  the  pressure  of  a  soft  wedded  hand  by 
our  own  elsewhere  pledged  one.  On  the  contrary,  we  triumph, 
we  have  the  rich  flavour  of  the  fruit  for  our  pains ;  we  com- 
mission the  historian  to  write  in  hieroglyphs  a  round  big  iact 


A  SMALL  THING  OR  A  GREAT.  263 

The  lady  passed  through  the  trial  submitting,  stiffening 
her  shoulders,  and  at  the  close,  shutting  her  eyes.  She  stood 
^ool  in  her  blush,  and  eyed  him  like  one  gravely  awakenel. 
Having  been  embraced  and  kissed,  she  had  to  consider  her 
taste  for  the  man,  and  acknowledge  a  neatness  of  impetuosity 
in  the  deed ;  and  he  was  neither  apologizing  culprit  nor 
glorying  bandit  when  it  was  done,  but  something  of  the 
lyric  God  tempering  his  fervours  to  a  pletsed  sereneness,  not 
offering  a  renewal  of  them.  He  glowed  transparently.  He 
said  :  "  You  are  the  woman  to  take  a  front  place  in  the 
bittle  !  "  With  this  woman  beside  him,  it  was  a  conquered 
world. 

Comparisons,  in  the  jotting  souvenirs  of  a  woman  of  her 
class  and  set,  favoured  him  ;  for  she  disliked  enterprising 
libertines  and  despised  stumbling  youths;  and  the  genial 
simple  glow  of  his  look  assured  her,  that  the  vanished  fiery 
moment  would  not  be  built  on  by  a  dating  master.  She 
owned  herself.  Or  did  she?  Some  understanding  of  how 
the  other  woman  had  been  won  to  the  leap  with  him,  was 
drawing  in  about  her.  She  would  have  liked  to  beg  for  the 
story ;  and  she  could  as  little  do  that  as  bring  her  tongue  to 
reproach.  If  we  come  to  the  den !  she  said  to  her  thought 
of  reproach.  Our  semi-civilization  makes  it  a  den,  where  a 
scent  in  his  nostrils  will  spring  the  halt-tamed  animal  away 
to  wildness.  And  she  had  come  unanticipatingly,  without 
design,  except  perhaps  to  get  a  superior  being  to  direct  and 
restrain  a  gambler's  hand;  perhaps  for  the  fee  of  a  temporary 
pressure. 

"I  may  be  able  to  help  a  little — I  hope !"  she  fetched  a 
breath  10  say,  while  her  eyelids  mildly  sermonized;  and 
immediately  she  talked  of  her  inheritance  of  property  in 
stocks  and  shares. 

Victor  commented  passingly  on  the  soundness  of  them, 
and  talked  of  projects  he  entertained: — Parliament!  "But 
1  have  only  to  mention  it  at  home,  and  my  poor  girl  will  set  in 
for  shrinking." 

He  doated  on  the  diverse  aspect  of  the  gallant  woman  of 
the  world. 

"You  succeed  in  everything  you  do,"  said  sho,  and  she 
cordially  believed  it ;  and  that  belief  set  the  neighbour 
memory  palpitating.  Success  folded  her  waist,  was  warnj 
upon  her  lips  :  she  worshipped  the  figure  of  Success. 


264  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"  I  can't  consent  to  fail,  it's  true,  when  my  mind  is  on  a 
thing,"  Victor  rejoined. 

He  looked  his  mind  on  Lady  Grace.  The  shiver  of  a  maid 
went  over  her.  These  transparent  visages,  where  the 
thought  which  is  half  design  is  perceived  as  a  lightning, 
strike  lightning  into  the  physically  feebler.  Her  hand 
begged,  with  the  open  palm,  her  head  shook  thrice;  and 
though  she  did  not  step  back,  he  bowed  to  the  negation,  and 
then  she  gave  him  a  grateful  shadow  of  a  smile,  relieved, 
with  a  startled  view  of  how  greatly  relieved,  by  that  sympa- 
thetic deference  in  the  wake  of  the  capturing  intrepidity. 

"  I  am  to  name  Tuesday  for  Dudley  ?  "  she  suggested. 

"  At  any  hour  he  pleases  to  appoint." 

"  A  visit  signifies  ..." 

"  Whatever  it  signifies !  " 

"  I'm  thinking  of  the  bit  of  annoyance." 

"  To  me  ?  Anything  appointed,  finds  me  ready  the  next 
minute." 

Her  smile  was  flatteringly  bright.  "  By  the  way,  keep 
your  City  people  close  about  you :  entertain  as  much  as 
possible ;  dine  them,"  she  said. 

"  At  home  ?  " 

"  Better.  Sir  Rodwell  Blachington,  Sir  Abraham  Qnatley : 
and  their  wives.  There's  no  drawing  back  now.  And  I  will 
meet  them." 

She  received  a  compliment.     She  was  on  the  foot  to  go. 

But  she  had  forgotten  the  Tiddler  mine. 

The  Tiddler  mine  was  leisurely  mounting.  Victor  stated 
the  figures ;  he  saluted  her  hand,  and  Lady  Grace  passed  out, 
with  her  heart  on  the  top  of  them,  and  a  buzz  about  it  of 
the  unexpected  having  occurred.  She  had  her  experiences 
to  match  new  patterns  in  events;  though  not  very  many. 
Compared  with  gambling,  the  game  of  love  was  an  idle  enter- 
tainment.   Compared  with  other  players,'4this  man  was  gifted. 

Victor  went  in  to  Mr.  Inchling's  room,  and  kept  lnchling 
from  speaking,  that  he  might  admire  him  for  he  knew  not 
what,  or  knew  not  well  what.  The  good  fellow  was  devoted 
to  his  wife.  Victor  in  old  days  had  called  the  wiie  Mrs. 
Grundy.  She  gossiped,  she  was  censorious ;  she  knew — could 
not  but  know — the  facts ;  yet  never  by  a  shade  was  she 
disrespectful.  He  had  a  curious  recollection  of  how  his 
knowledge  of  lnchling  and  his  wife  being  always  in  concert, 


A   SMALL  THING   OR   A   GREAT.  265 

entirely — whatever  they  might  think  in  private — devoted 
to  him  in  action,  had  influenced,  if  it  had  not  originally 
sprung,  his  resolve  to  cast  off  the  pestilential  cloak  of  obscurity 
shortening  his  days,  and  emerge  before  a  world  he  could 
illumine  to  give  him  back  splendid  reflections.  Inchling 
and  his  wife,  it  was :  because  the  two  were  one  :  and  if  one, 
and  subservient  to  him,  knowing  ail  the  story,  why,  it  fore- 
shadowed a  conquered  world  !  They  were  the  one  pulse  of 
the  married  Grundy  beating  in  his  hand.     So  it  had  been. 

He  rattled  his  views  upon  Indian  business,  to  hold  Inch- 
ling  silent,  and  let  his  mind  dwell  almost  lovingly  on  the 
good  faithful  spouse,  who  had  no  pho*phorescent  writing  of 
a  recent  throbbing  event  on  the  four  walls  of  his  room. 

Nataly  was  not  so  generously  encountered  in  idea. 

He  felt  and  regretted  this.  He  greeted  her  with  a  doubled 
affection  ateness.  Her  pitiable  deficiency  of  courage,  excusing 
a  man  for  this  and  that  small  matter  in  the  thick  of  the 
conflict,  made  demands  on  him  for  gentle  treatment. 

"  You  have  not  seen  any  one  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  City  people.     And  you.  my  love?  " 

"Mr.  Barmby  called.  He  has  gone  down  to  Tunbridge 
Wells  for  a  week,  to  some  friend  there."  iShe  added,  in  pain 
of  thought :  "  I  have  seen  Dartrey.  He  has  brought  Lord 
Clanconan  to  town,  for  a  consultation,  and  expects  he  will 
have  to  take  him  to  Brighton." 

u  Brighton  ?  What  a  life  for  a  man  like  Dartrey,  at 
Brighton !  " 

Her  breast  heaved.  "  If  T  cannot  see  my  Nesta  there,  he 
will  bring  her  up  to  me  for  a  day." 

**  But,  my  dear,  I  will  bring  her  up  to  you,  if  it  is  your 
wish  to  see  her." 

**  It  is  becoming  imperative  that  I  should." 

"  No  hurry,  no  hurry :  wait  till  the  end  of  next  week. 
And  I  must  see  Dartrey,  on  business,  at  once  !  " 

She  gave  the  address  in  a  neighbouring  square.  He  had 
minutes  to  spare  before  dinner,  and  flew.  She  was  not 
inquisitive. 

Colney  Durance  had  told  Dartrey,  that  Victor  was  killing 
her.  She  had  little  animation  ;  her  smiles  were  ready,  but 
faint.  After  her  interview  with  Dudley,  there  had  been  a 
swoon  at  home ;  and  her  maid,  sworn  to  secresy,  willingly 
spared  a  tender-hearted  husband — so  good  a  master. 


266  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

MRS.    MARSKTT. 

Little  acts  of  kindness  were  not  beyond  the  range  of 
Colney  Durance,  and  he  ran  down  to  Brighton,  to  give  the 
exiled  Nesta  some  taste  of  her  friendly  London  circle.  The 
Duvidney  ladies  knew  that  the  dreaded  gentleman  had  a 
regard  for  the  girl.  Their  own,  which  was  becoming 
warmer  than  they  liked  to  think,  was  impressed  by  his 
manner  of  conversing  with  her.  "  Child  though  she  was," 
he  paid  her  the  compliment  of  a  sober  as  well  as  a  satirical 
review  of  the  day's  political  matter  and  recent  publications ; 
and  the  ladies  were  introduced,  in  a  wonderment,  to  the 
damsel  Delphica.  They  listened  placidly  to  a  discourhe  upon 
her  performances,  Japanese  to  their  understandings.  At 
New  York,  behold,  another  adventurous  representative  and 
advocate  of  the  European  tongues  has  joined  the  party : 
Signor  Jeridomani :  a  philologer,  of  course  ;  a  politician  in 
addition ;  Macchiavelli  redivivus,  it  seems  to  fair  Delphica. 
The  speech  he  delivers  at  the  Syndicate  Delmonico  Dinner, 
is  justly  applauded  by  the  New  York  Press  as  a  masterpiece 
of  astuteness.  He  appears  to  be  the  only  one  of  the  party 
who  has  an  eye  for  the  dark.  She  fancies  she  may  know  a 
more  widely  awake  in  the  abstract.  But  now,  thanks  to 
jubilant  Journals  and  Homeric  laughter  over  the  Continent, 
the  secret  is  out,  in  so  far  as  the  concurrents  are  all  unmasked 
and  exposed  for  the  edification  of  the  American  public.  Dr. 
Bouthoin's  eyebrows  are  up,  Mr.  Semhians  disfigures  his 
name  by  greatly  gaping.  Shall  they  return  to  their  Great 
Britain  indignant  ?  Patriotism,  with  the  sauce  of  a  luxurious 
expedition  at  no  cost  to  the  private  purse,  restrains  them. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  sign  of  any  one  of  the  others  intending 
to  quit  the  expedition ;  and  Mr.  Semhians  has  done  a  marvel 
or  two  in  the  cricket-field  :  Old  England  looks  up  where  she 
can.  What  is  painfully  extraordinary  to  our  couple,  they 
find  in  the  frigid  attitude  of  the  Americans  toward  their 
*  common  tongue  ; '  together  with  the  rumour  of  a  design  to 
despatch  an  American  rival  emissary  to  Japan. 

Nesta  listened,  inquired,  commented,  laughed;  the  ladies 
could  not  have  a  doubt  that  siie  was  interested  and  under- 


MES.  MAESETT.  267 

stood.  She  would  have  sketches  of  scenes  "between  Delphica 
and  M.  talari  que,  with  whom  the  young  Germania  was 
cleverly  ingenuous  indeed — a  seminary  Celimene;  and 
between  Delphica  and  M.  Mytharete,  with  whom  she  was 
archaeological,  ravishingly  amoebaean  of  Homer.  Dr.  Gannius 
holds  a  trump  card  in  his  artless  daughter,  conjectu rally, 
far  the  establishment  of  the  language  of  the  gutturals  in  the 
far  East.  He  has  now  a  suspicion,  that  the  inventive 
M.  Falarique,  melted  down  to  sobriety  by  misfortune,  may 
some  day  startle  their  camp  by  the  cast  of  more  than  a  crow 
into  it,  and  he  is  bent  on  establishing  alliances ;  frightens 
the  supple  Signor  Jeridomani  to  lingual  fixity;  eulogizes 
Football,  with  Dr.  Bouthoin ;  and  retracts,  or  modifies,  his 
dictum  upon  the  English,  that,  •  masculine  brawn  they  have 
in  their  bodies,  but  muscle  they  have  not  in  their  feminine 
minds ; '  to  exalt  them,  for  a  signally  clean,  if  a  dense, 
people :  "  Amousia,  not  Alousia,  is  their  enemy." — How, 
when  we  have  the  noblest  crop  of  poets? — "You  have  never 
heartily  embraced  those  aliens  among  you  until  you  learnt 
from  us,  that  you  might  brag  of  them." — Have  they  not 
endowed  us  with  the  richest  of  languages  ? — "  The  words 
of  which  are  used  by  you,  as  old  slippers,  for  puns."  Mr. 
Semhians  has  been  superciliously  and  ineffectively  punning 
in  foreign  presences :  he  and  his  chief  are  inwardly  shocked 
by  a  new  perception ; — What  if,  now  that  we  have  the 
populace  for  paymaster,  subservience  to  the  literary  tastes 
of  the  populace  should  reduce  the  nation  to  its  lowest  mental 
level,  and  render  us  not  only  unable  to  compete  with  the 
foreigner,  but  unintelligible  to  him,  although  so  proudly 
paid  at  home  !  Is  it  not  thus  that  nations  are  seen  of  the 
Highest  to  be  devouring  themselves?  "For,"  says  Dr. 
Gannius,  as  if  divining  them,  *'  this  excessive  and  applauded 
productiveness,  both  of  your  juvenile  and  your  senile,  in  your 
modern  literature,  is  it  ever  a  crop?  Is  it  even  the  restora- 
tive perishable  stuff  of  the  markets?  Is  it  not  rather  your 
street-pavement's  patter  of  raindrops,  incessantly  in  motion, 
and  as  fruitful?"  Mr.  Semhians  appeals  to  Delphica. 
"Genius  you  have,"  says  she,  stiffening  his  neck-band, 
"  genius  in  superabundance  : " — he  throttles  to  the  com- 
plexion of  the  peony :—"  perhaps  criticism  is  wanting." 
Dr.  Gannius  adds:  "Perhaps  it  is  the  drill-sergeant  every- 
where wanting  for  an  unrivalled  splendid  rabble  '  " 


26*8  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Colney  left  the  whole  body  of  concurrents  on  the  raTwerl 
flooring  of  a  famous  New  York  Hall,  cleany  entrapped,  and 
incited  to  debate  before  an  enormous  audience,  as  to  the 
merits  of  their  respective  languages.  "  I  hear,"  says  Dr. 
Bouthoin  to  Mr.  Semhians  (whose  gape  is  daily  extending), 
"  that  the  tickets  cost  ten  dollars  !  " 

There  was  not  enough  of  Delphica  for  Nesta. 

Colney  asked  :  "  Have  you  seen  any  of  our  band  ?  *' 

"  No,"  she  said,  with  good  cheer,  and  became  thoughtful, 
conscious  of  a  funny  reason  for  the  wish  to  hear  of  the 
fictitious  creature  disliked  by  Dudley.  A  funny  and  a 
naughty  reason,  was  it  ?  Not  so  very  naughty :  but  it 
was  fanny ;  for  it  was  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  Dudley, 
without  an  inferior  feeling  at  all,  such  as  ^irls  should  have. 

Colney  brought  his  viola  for  a  duet ;  they  had  a  pleasant 
musical  evening,  as  in  old  days  at  Creckholt;  and  Nesta, 
going  upstairs  with  the  ladies  to  bed,  made  them  share  her 
father's  amused  view  of  the  lamb  of  the  flock  this  bitter 
gentleman  became  when  he  had  the  melodious  instrument 
tucked  under  his  chin.  He  was  a  guest  for  the  night. 
Dressing  in  the  early  hour,  Nesta  saw  him  from  her  window 
on  the  parade,  and  soon  joined  him,  to  hear  him  at  his 
bitterest,  in  the  flush  of  the  brine.  "  These  lengths  of 
blank-faced  terraces  fronting  sea !  "  were  the  satirist's 
present  black  beast.  "  So  these  moneyed  English  shoulder 
to  the  front  place ;  and  that  is  the  appearance  they  oifer 
to  their  commercial  God  !  "  He  gazed  along  the  miles  of 
"  English  countenance,"  drearily  laughing.  Changeful 
ocean  seemed  to  laugh  at  the  spectacle.  Some  Orphic  joke 
inspired  his  exclamation  :  "  Capital !  " 

'*  Come  where  the  shops  are,"  said  Nesta. 

14  And  how  many  thousand  parsons  have  you  here?" 

■*  Ten,  I  think,"  she  answered  in  his  vein,  and  warmed 
him  ;  leading  him  contemplatively  to  scrutinize  her  admirers : 
the  Eev.  Septimus  ;  Mr.  Sowerby. 

••  News  of  our  friend  of  the  whimpering  flute?" 

"  Here  ?  no.     I  have  to  understand  you  !  " 

Colney  cast  a  weariful  look  backward  on  the  "regiments 
of  Anglo-Chinese "  represented  to  him  by  the  moneyed 
terraces,  and  said  :  "  The  face  of  a  stopped  watch  ! — the  only 
meaning  it  has  is  past  date." 

He  had  no   liking  for  Dudley  Sowerby.     Bat  it   might 


MRS,    MARSETT.  269 

have  "been  an  allusion  to  the  general  view  of  the  houses. 
Bur.  again,  "  the  meaning  of  it  past  date,"  stuck  in  her 
memory.  A  certain  face  close  on  handsome,  had  a  fatal 
susceptibility  to  caricature. 

She  spoke  of  her  *  exile  ' :  wanted  Skepsey  to  come  down 
to  her ;  moaned  over  the  loss  of  her  Louise.  The  puzzle  of 
the  reason  for  the  long  separation  from  her  parents,  was 
evident  in  her  mind,  and  unmentioned. 

They  turned  on  to  the  pier. 

Nesta  reminded  him  of  certain  verses  he  had  written  to 
celebrate  her  visit  to  the  place  when  she  was  a  child  : 

"'  And  then  along  the  pier  we  sped, 
And  there  we  saw  a  Whale : 
He  seemed  to  have  a  Rormous  Head, 
And  not  a  bit  of  Tail. '  " 

"  Manifestly  a  foreigner  to  our  shores,  where  the  exactly 
inverse  condition  rules,"  Colney  said. 

" '  And  then  we  scampered  on  the  beach, 
'J  o  chase  the  foaming  wave ; 
And  when  we  ran  beyond  its  reach 
We  all  became^nore  brave.'  " 

Colney  remarked  :  "  I  was  a  poet — for  once." 

A  neat-legged  Parisianly-booted  lady,  having  the  sea- 
winds  very  enterprising  with  her  dark  wavy  locks  and 
jacket  and  skirts,  gave  a  cry  of  pleasure  and  a  silvery 
*'  You  dear  !  "  at  sight  of  Nesta  ;  then  at  sight  of  one  of  us, 
moderated  her  tone  to  a  propriety  equalling  the  most  con- 
ventional.    k'  We  ride  to-day  ?  " 

"  I  shall  be  one,"  said  Nesta. 

"  It  would  not  be  the  commonest  pleasure  to  me,  if  you 
were  absent." 

"Till  eleven,  then!" 

"  After  my  morning  letter  to  Ned." 

She  sprinkled  silvery  sound  on  that  name  or  on  the  adieu, 
blushed,  blinked,  frowned,  sweetened  her  lip-lines,  bit  at 
the  underone,  and  passed  in  a  discomposure. 

"  The  lady  ?  "  Colney  asked. 

"  She  is — I  meet  her  in  the  troop  conducted  by  the  riding- 
master:  Mrs.  Marsett." 

"  And  who  is  Ned  ?  " 

"It  is  her  husband,  to  whom  she  writes  ©very  morning. 


I  UNIVERSITY 


270  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

He  is  a  captain  in  the  army,  or  was.  He  is  in  Norway, 
fishing." 

"  Then  the  probability  is,  that  the  English  officer  con- 
tinues his  military  studies" 

"  Do  you  not  think  her  handsome,  Mr.  Durance?  " 

"  Ned  may  boast  of  his  possession,  when  he  has  trimmed 
it  and  toned  it  a  little." 

"  She  is  different,  if  you  are  alone  with  her." 

■*  It  is  not  unusual,"  said  Colney. 

At  eleven  o'clock  he  was  in  London,  and  Nesta  rode  beside 
Mrs.  Marsett  amid  the  troop. 

A  South-easterly  wind  blew  the  waters  to  shifty  gold- 
leaf  prints  of  brilliance  under  the  sun. 

"1  took  a  liberty  this  morning,  I  called  you  'Dear*  this 
morning,"  the  lady  said.  M  It's  what  I  feel,  only  I  have  no 
right  to  blurt  out  everything  I  feel,  and  I  was  ashamed.  I  am 
sure  I  must  have  appeared  ridiculous.     I  got  quite  nervous." 

"  You  would  not  be  ridiculous  to  me." 

"  I  remember  1  spoke  of  Ned." 

*'  You  have  spoken  of  him  before." 

"  Oh  !  I  know :  to  you  alone.  I  should  like  to  pluck  out 
my  heart  and  pitch  it  on  the  waves,  to  see  whether  it  would 
wink  or  swim.  That's  a  funny  idea,  isn't  it !  I  tell  you 
everything  that  comes  up.  What  shall  I  do  when  I  lose 
you  !  You  alwavs  make  me  feel  you've  a  lot  of  poetry 
ready-made  in  you." 

"  We  will  write.    And  you  will  have  your  husband  then." 

•'  When  I  had  finished  my  letter  to  Ned,  I  dropped  my 
head  on  it  and  behaved  like  a  fool  for  several  minutes.  I 
can't  bear  the  thought  of  losing  you  !  " 

"  But  you  don't  lose  me,"  said  Nesta;  "  there  is  no  ground 
for  your  supposing  that  you  will.  And  your  wish  not  to 
lose  me,  binds  me  to  you  more  closely." 

"  If  you  knew ! "  Mrs.  Marsett  caught  at  her  slippery 
tongue,  and  she  carolled :  "  If  we  all  knew  everything,  we 
should  be  wiser,  and  what  a  naked  lot  of  people  we  should 
be!" 

They  were  crossing  the  passage  of  a  cavalcade  of  gentle- 
men, at  the  end  of  the  East  Cliff.  One  among  them,  large 
and  dominant,  with  a  playful  voice  of  brass,  cried  out  : 
"  And  how  do  you  do,  Mrs.  Judith  Marsett — ha  ?  Beautiful 
niurning  ?  " 


MRS.    MARSETT.  271 

Mrs.  Marsett's  figure  tightened;  she  rode  stonily  erect, 
looked  level  ahead.  Her  woman's  red  mouth  was  shut  fast 
on  a  fighting  underlip. 

"  fie  did  not  salute  you,"  Nesta  remarked,  to  justify  her 
for  not  having  responded. 

The  lady  breathed  a  low  thunder  :  "  Coward !  " 

"  He  cannot  have  intended  to  insult  you,"  said  Nesta. 

"  That  man  knows  I  will  not  notice  him.  He  is  a  beast. 
He  will  learn  that  I  carry  a  horsewhip." 

"  Are  you  not  taking  a  little  incident  too  much  to  heart  ?  " 

The  sigh  of  the  heavily  laden  came  from  Mr».  Marsett : 
"  Am  I  pale  ?  I  dare  say.  I  shall  go  on  my  knees  to-night 
hating  myself  that  I  was  born  'one  of  the  frail  sex.'  We 
are,  or  we  should  ride  at  the  coward  and  strike  him  to  the 
ground.  Pray,  pray  do  not  look  distressed  !  Now  you  know 
my  Christian  name.  That  dog  of  a  man  barks  it  out  on  the 
roads.     It  doesn't  matter." 

"  He  has  offended  you  before  ?  " 

'*  You  are  near  me.  They  can't  hurt  me,  can't  touch  me, 
when  I  think  that  I'm  talking  with  you.  How  I  envy  those 
who  call  you  by  your  Christian  name." 

"Nesta,"  said  smiling  Nesta.  The  smile  was  forced,  that 
she  might  show  kindness,  for  the  lady  was  jarring  on  her. 

Mrs.  Marsett  opened  her  lips :  "  Oh,  my  God,  I  shall  be 
crying  ! — let's  gallop.  No,  wait,  I'll  tell  you.  1  wish  I 
could !  I  will  tell  you  of  that  man.  That  man  is  Major 
Worrell.  One  of  the  majors  who  manage  to  get  to  their 
grade.  A  retired  warrior.  He  married  a  handsome  woman, 
above  him  in  rank,  with  money  ;  a  good  woman.  She  was 
a  good  woman,  or  she  would  have  had  her  vengeance,  and 
there  was  never  a  word  against  her.  She  must  have  loved 
that — Ned  calls  him,  full-blooded  ox.  He  spent  her  money 
and  he  deceived  her. — You  innocent !  Oh,  you  dear !  I'd 
give  the  world  to  have  your  eyes.  I've  heard  tell  of  *  crystal 
clear,'  but  eyes  like  yours  have  to  tell  me  how  deep  and 
clear.  Such  a  world  tor  them  to  be  in !  I  did  pray,  and 
used  your  name  last  night  on  my  knees,  that  you: — I  said 
Njsta — might  never  have  to  go  through  other  women's 
miseries.  Ah  me  !  I  have  to  tell  you  he  deceived  her.  You 
don't  quite  understand." 

"I  do  understand,"  said  Nesta. 

**  God   help  you ! — I  am   excited   to-day.     That   man   is 


272  ONE    CF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

poison  to  me.  His  wife  forgave  him  three  times.  On  three 
occasions,  that  unhappy  woman  forgave  him.  He  is  great 
at  his  oaths,  and  a  big  breaker  of  them.  She  walked  out  one 
November  afternoon  and  met  him  riding  along  with  a  noto- 
rious creature.  You  know  there  are  bad  women.  They  passed 
her,  laughing.  And  look  there,  Nesta,  see  that  groyne  ;  that 
very  one."  Mrs.  Marsett  pointed  her  whip  hard  out.  "  The 
poor  lady  went  down  from  the  height  here  ;  she  walked  into 
that  rough  water — look  ! — steadying  herself  along  it,  and 
she  plunged ;  she  never  came  out  alive.  A  week  after  her 
burial,  Major  Worrell — I've  told  you  enough." 

44  We'll  gallop  now,"  said  Nesta. 

Mrs.  Marsett's  talk,  her  presence  hardly  less,  affected  the 
girl  with  those  intimations  of  tumult  shown  upon  smooth 
waters  when  the  great  elements  are  conspiring.  She  felt 
that  there  was  a  cause  why  she  had  to  pity,  did  pity  her. 
It  might  be,  that  Captain  Marsett  wedded  one  who  was  of 
inferior  station,  and  his  wife  had  to  bear  blows  from  cruel 
people.  The  supposition  seemed  probable.  The  girl  accepted 
it ;  for  beyond  it,  as  the  gathering  of  the  gale  masked  by 
hills,  lay  a  brewing  silence.  What?  She  did  not  reflect. 
Her  quick  physical  sensibility  curled  to  some  breath  of 
heated  atmosphere  brought  about  her  by  this  new  acquaint- 
ance :  not  pleasant,  if  she  had  thought  of  pleasure  :  intensely 
suggestive  of  our  life  at  the  consuming  tragic  core,  round 
which  the  furnace  pants.  But  she  was  unreflecting,  feeling 
only  a  beyond  and  hidden. 

Besides,  she  was  an  exile.  Spelling  at  dark  things  in  the 
dark,  getting  to  have  the  sight  which  peruses  darkness,  she 
touched  the  door  of  a  mystery  that  denied  her  its  key,  but 
showed  the  lock ;  and.  her  life  was  beginning  to  know  of 
hours  that  fretted  her  to  recklessness.  Her  friend  Louise 
was  absent :  she  had  so  few  friends — owing  to  that  unsolved 
reason :  she  wanted  one,  of  any  kind,  if  only  gentle :  and 
this  lady  seemed  to  need  her  :  and  she  flattered  ;  Nesta  was 
in  the  mood  for  swallowing  and  digesting  and  making  sweet 
blood  of  flattery. 

At  one  time,  she  liked  Mrs.  Marsett  best  absent:  in 
musing  on  her,  wishing  her  well,  having  said  the  adieu. 
For  it  was  wearisome  to  hear  praises  of  4  innocence ; '  and 
women  can  do  so  little  to  cuie  th*t  4  wickedness  of  men,' 
among  the  lady's  conversational  themes ;    and  4  love '  too : 


MRS.    MARSETT.  273 

it  may  "be  a  ■  plague,'  and  it  may  be  *  heaven  :  *  it  is  better 
left  unspoken  of.  But  tmere  were  times  when  Mrs.  Mar- 
sett's  looks  and  tones  touched  compassion  to  press  her  hand : 
an  act  that  had  a  pledgeing  signification  in  the  girl's  bosom : 
and  when,  by  the  simple  avoidance  of  ejaculatory  fervours, 
Mrs.  Marsett's  quieted  good  looks  had  a  shadow  of  a  tender 
charm,  more  pathetic  than  her  outcries  were.  These  had  not 
always  the  sanction  of  polite  usage :  and  her  English  was 
guilty  of  sudden  lapses  to  the  Thames-water  English  of 
commerce  and  drainage  instead  of  the  upper  wells.  But 
there  aie  many  uneducated  ladies  in  the  land.  Many,  too, 
whose  tastes  in  romantic  literature  betray  now  and  then  by 
peeps  a  similarity  to  Nesta's  maid  Mary's.  Mrs.  Marseit 
liked  love,  blood,  and  adventure.  She  had,  moreover,  a 
favourite  noble  poet,  and  she  begged  Nesta's  pardon  for 
naming  him,  and  she  would  not  name  him,  and  told  her  she 
must  not  read  him  until  she  was  a  married  woman,  because 
he  did  mischief  to  girls.  Thereupon  she  fell  into  one  of  her 
silences,  emerging  with  a  cry  of  hate  of  herself  for  having 
ever  read  him.  She  did  not  blame  the  bard.  And,  ah,  poor 
bard!  he  fought  his  battle:  he  shall  not  be  named  for  the 
brand  on  the  name.  He  has  lit  a  sulphur  match  for  the 
lower  of  nature  through  many  a  generation ;  and  to  be  for- 
given by  sad  frail  souls  who  could  accuse  him  of  pipeing 
devil's  agent  to  them  at  the  perilous  instant — poor  girls  too ! 
— is  chastisement  enough.  This  it  is  to  be  the  author  of 
unholy  sweets  :  a  Posterity  sitting  in  judgement  will  grant, 
tnat  they  were  part  of  his  honest  battle  with  the  hypocrite 
English  Philistine,  without  being  dupe  of  the  plea  or  at  all 
the  thirsty  swallower  of  his  sugary  brandy.  Mrs.  Marsett 
expressed  aloud  her  gladness  of  escape  in  never  having  met 
a  man  like  him;  followed  by  her  regret  that  '  Ned '  was  so 
utterly  unlike ;  except  M  perhaps  " — and  she  hummed  ;  she 
was  off  on  the  fraternity  in  wickedness. 

Nesta's  ears  were  fatigued.  "My  mother  writes  of  you,'* 
she  said,  to  vary  the  subject. 

Mrs.  Marsett  looked.  She  sighed  downright :  "  I  have 
had  my  dream  of  a  friend  ! — It  was  that  gentleman  with 
you  on  the  pier!     Your  mother  objects?" 

*'  She  has  inquired,  nothing  more." 

"  1  am  not  twenty-three  :  not  as  old  as  I  should  be,  for  a 
guide  to  you.     I  knuw  I  would  never  do  you  harm.     Thai 

T 


274  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

I  know.  I  would  walk  into  that  water  first,  and  take  Mrs. 
Worrell's  plunge  : — the  last  bath ;  a  thorough  cleanser  for 
a  woman  !  Only,  she  was  a  good  woman  and  didn't  want  it, 
as  we — as  lots  of  us  do : — to  wash  off  all  recollection  of 
Laving  met  a  man  !  Your  mother  would  not  like  me  to  call 
a  ou  Nesta  !  I  have  never  begged  you  to  call  me  Judith. 
Damnable  name  !  "  Mis.  Marsett  revelled  in  the  heat  of  the 
curse  on  it,  as  a  relief  to  torture  of  the  breast,  until  a  sense 
of  the  girl's  alarmed  hearing  sent  the  word  reverberating 
along  her  nerves  and  shocked  her  with  such  an  exposure  of 
our  Shaggy  wild  one  on  a  lady's  lips.  She  murmured: 
4i  Forgive  me,"  and  had  the  passion  to  repeat  the  epithet  in 
shrieks,  and  scratch  up  male  speech  for  a  hatefuller ;  but  the 
twitch  of  Nesta's  brows  made  her  say:  "Do  pardon  me.  I 
did  something  in  Scripture.  Judith  could  again.  Since 
that  brute  Worrell  crossed  me  riding  with  you,  I  loathe  my 
name ;  I  want  to  do  things.     I  have  offended  you." 

"  We  have  been  taught  differently.     I  do  not  use  those 
words.     Nothing  else." 
/  "  They  frighten  you." 
I    "  They  make  me  shut;  that  is  all." 

"  Supposing  you  were  some  day  to  discover  .  .  .  ta-ta-ta, 
all  the  things  there  are  in  the  world."  Mrs.  Marsett  let  fly 
an  artificial  chirrup.     M  You  must  have  some  ideas  of  me." 

•'  I  think  you  have  had  unhappy  experiences." 

"  Nesta  .  .  .  just  now  and  then !  the  first  time  we  rode 
out  together,  coming  back  from  the  downs,  I  remember,  I 
spoke,  without  thinking — I  was  enraged — of  a  case  in  the 
newspapers ;  and  you  had  seen  it,  and  you  were  not  afraid 
to  talk  of  it.  1  remember  I  thought,  Well,  for  a  girl  she's 
bold  !  I  thought  you  knew  more  than  a  girl  ought  to  know : 
until — you  did — you  set  my  heart  going.  You  spoke  of  the 
poor  women  like  an  angel  of  compassion.  You  said,  we 
were  all  mixed  up  with  their  fate — I  forget  the  words.  But 
no  one  ever  heard  in  Church  anything  that  touched  me  so. 
I  worshipped  you.  You  said,  you  thought  of  them  often, 
and  longed  to  find  out  what  you  could  do  to  help.  And  I 
thought,  if  they  could  hear  you,  and  only  come  near  you,  as 
I  was — ah,  my  heaven ! — Unhappy  experiences  ?  Yes.  But 
when  men  get  women  on  the  slope  to  their  perdition,  they 
have  no  mercy,  none.  They  deceive,  and  they  lie ;  they  are 
false  in  acts  and  words ;  they  do  as  much  ap,  murder.  They're 


MKS.    MAESETT.  275 

never  Danced  for  it.  They  make  the  laws !  And  then  they 
become  fathers  of  families,  and  point  the  finger  at  the 
*wretcned  creatures.'  They  have  a  dozen  names  against 
women,  for  one  at  themselves." 

"  It  maddens  me  at  tim^s  to  think  !  .  .  ."  said  Nesta, 
burning  with  the  sting  of  vile  names. 

"Ob,  there  are  bad  women  as  well  as  bad  men  :  but  men 
have  the  power  and  the  lead,  and  they  take  advantage  of 
it ;  and  then  they  turn  round  and  execrate  us  for  not  having 
what  they  have  robbed  us  of !  " 

"  I  blame  women — if  I  may  dare,  at  my  age,"  said  Nesta, 
and  her  bosom  heaved.  "  Women  should  feel  for  their  sex ; 
they  should  not  allow  the  names;  they  should  go  among 
their  unhappier  sisters.  At  the  worst,  they  are  sisters !  I 
am  sure,  that  fallen  cannot,  mean — Christ  shows  it  does  not. 
He  changes  the  tone  of  Scripture.  The  women  who  are 
made  outcasts,  must  be  hopeless  and  go  to  utter  ruin.  We 
should,  if  we  pretend  to  be  better,  step  between  them  and 
that.  There  cannot  be  any  goodness  unless  it  is  a  practised 
goodness.  Otherwise  it  is  nothing  more  than  paint  on 
canvas.  You  speak  to  me  of  my  innocence.  What  is  it 
worth,  if  it  is  only  a  picture  and  does  no  work  to  help  to 
rescue.  I  fear  I  think  most  of  the  dreadful  names  that 
redden  and  sicken  us. — The  Old  Testament ! — I  have  a 
French  friend,  a  Mademoiselle  Louise  de  Seilles — you  should 
hear  her:  she  is  intensely  French,  and  a  Eoman  Catholic, 
everything  which  we  are  not :  but  so  human,  so  wise,  and 
so  full  of  the  pride  of  her  sex  !  I  love  her.  It  is  love.  She 
will  never  marry  until  she  meets  a  man  who  has  the  respect 
for  women,  for  all  women.  We  both  think  we  cannot 
separate  ourselves  from  our  sisters.  S^e  seems  to  me  to 
wither  men,  when  she  speaks  of  their  injustice,  their  snares 
to  mislead  and  their  cruelty  when  they  have  succeeded.  She 
is  right,  it  is  the — brute  :  there  is  no  other  word." 

"  And  French  and  good !  "  Mrs.  Marsett  ejaculated.  "  My 
Ned  reads  French  novels,  and  he  says,  their  women.  .  .  . 
But  your  mademoiselle  is  a  real  one.  If  she  says  all  that, 
1  could  kneel  to  her,  French  or  not.  Does  she  talk  much 
about  men  and  women  ?  " 

"  Not  often  :  we  lose  our  tempers.  She  wants  women  to 
have  professions  ;  at  present  they  have  not  much  choice  to 
avoid  being   penniless.     Povertv,  and  the  sight  of  luxury! 


276  OITE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

It  seams  as  if  we  produced  the  situation,  to  create  an  envious 
thirst,  and  cause  the  misery.  Things  are  improving  for 
them  ;  but  we  groan  at  the  slowness  of  it." 

Mrs.  Marsett  now  declared  a  belief,  that  women  were 
neaily  quite  as  bad  as  men.  "  I  don't  think  I  could  take  up 
with  a  profession.  Unless  to  be  a  singer.  Ah!  Do  you 
bing?" 

Nesta  smiled  :  "Yes,  I  sing." 

"How  I  should  like  to  hear  you  !  My  Ned's  a  thorough 
Englishman — gentleman,  you  know:  he  cares  only  for  sp  >rt; 
Shooting,  Fishing,  Hunting;  and  Football,  Cricket,  Rowing, 
and  matches.  He's  immensely  proud  of  England  in  those 
things.  And  su  ;h  muscle  lie  has  ! — though  he  begins  to 
fancy  his  heart's  rather  weak.  It's  digestion,  I  tell  him. 
But  he  takes  me  to  the  Opera  sometimes —Italian  Opera; 
he  can't  stand  German.  Down  at  his  place  in  Leicester- 
shire, he  tells  me,  when  tliere's  company,  he  has — I'm  sure 
you  sing  beautifully.  When  I  hear  beautiful  singing,  even 
from  a  woman  they  tell  tales  of  upon  my  word,  it's  true,  I 
feel  my  sins  all  melting  out  of  me  and  I'm  new-made: 
I  can't  bear  Ned  to  speak.  Would  you  one  day,  one  after- 
noon, before  the  end  of  next  week  ? — it  would  do  me  such 
real  good,  you  can't  guess  how  much;  if  I  could  persuade 
yon  !  I  know  I'm  asking  something  out  of  rules.  For  just 
half  an  hour!  1  jud^e  by  your  voice  in  talking.  Oh!  it 
would  do  me  good — good — good  to  hear  you  sing.  There 
is  a  tuned  piano — a  cottage ;  I  don't  think  it  sounds  badly. 
You  would  not  see  any  great  harm  in  calling  on  me? — 
once  ! " 

"  Ko,"  said  Nesta.  And  it  was  her  nature  that  projected 
the  word.  Her  awakened  wits  were  travelling  to  her  from 
a  distance,  and  she  had  an  intimation  of  their  tidings;  and 
she  could  not  have  said  what  they  were;  or  why,  for  a 
moment,  she  hesitated  to  promise  she  would  come.  Her 
vis:on  of  the  reality  of  things  was  without  written  titles,  to 
put  the  stamp  of  the  world  on  it.  She  felt  this  lady  to  be 
one  encompassed  and  in  the  hug  of  the  elementary  forces, 
which  are  the  terrors  to  inexperienced  pure  young  women. 
But  she  looked  at  her,  and  dared  trust  those  lips,  thos^  eAes 
She  saw,  through  whatever  might  be  the  vessel,  the  spirit 
of  the  woman ;  as  the  upper  nobility  of  our  brood  are 
enabled   to  do   in  a   crisis   mixed    of  moral   aversion  and 


ONE  OF  THE  SHADOWS  OF  THE  WORLD.       277 

sisterly  sympathy,  when  nature  cries  to  them,  and  the  scales 
of  convention,  the  mud-spots  of  accident,  even  naughtiness, 
even  wickedness,  all  misfortune's  issue,  if  we  but  see  the  one 
look  upward,  fall  away.  Eeason  is  nut  excluded  from  thes  i 
blind  throbs  of  a  blood  that  strikes  to  right  the  doings  of 
the  Fates.  Nesta  did  not  err  in  her  divination  of  the  good 
and  the  bad  incarnate  beside  her,  though  both  good  and  bad 
were  behind  a  curtain ;  the  latter  sparing  her  delicate 
senses,  appealing  to  chivalry,  to  the  simply  feminine  claim 
on  her.  Eeason,  acting  in  her  heart  as  a  tongue  of  the 
flames  of  the  forge  where  we  all  are  wrought,  told  her  surely 
that  the  good  predominated.  She  had  tne  heart  which  is  at 
our  primal  fires  when  nature  speaks. 

She  gave  the  promise  to  call  on  Mrs.  Marsett  and  sing 
to  her. 

<k  An  afternoon  ?  Oh !  what  afternoon  ?  "  she  was  asked, 
and  she  said  :  "  This  afternoon,  if  you  like." 

So  it  was  agreed  :  Mrs.  Marsett  acted  violently  the  thrill 
of  delight  she  felt  in  the  prospect. 

The  ladies  Dorothea  and  Virginia  consulted,  and  pro- 
nounced the  name  of  Marsett  to  be  a  reputable  County 
name.  "  There  was  a  Leicestershire  baronet  of  the  name 
of  Marsett."  They  arranged  to  send  their  button-blazing 
boy  at  Nesta' s  heels.  Mrs.  Marsett  resided  in  a  side-street 
not  very  distant  from  the  featureless  but  washed  and  orderly 
terrace  of  the  glassy  stare  at  sea 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

SHOWS  ONE  OF   THE   SHADOWS   OF   THE   WORLD   CROSSING 
A  virgin's  MIND. 

Nesta  and  her  maid  were  brought  back  safely  through  the 
dusk  by  their  constellation  of  a  boy,  to  whom  the  provident 
ladies  had  entrusted  her.  They  could  not  but  note  how 
short  her  syllables  were.  Her  face  was  only  partly  seen. 
They  had  returned  refreshed  from  their  drive  on  the 
populous  and  orderly  parade — so  fair  a  pattern  of  their 
England  ! — after  discoursing  of  "the  dear  child,"  approving 


278  ONE    OP    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

her  manners,  instancing  proofs  of  her  intelligence,  nay,  her 
possession  of  "  character."  They  did  so,  ncr.  withstanding 
that  these  admissions  were  worse  than  their  growing  love 
for  the  girl,  to  confound  established  ideas.  And  now,  in 
thoughtfulness  on  her  behalf,  Dorothea  said,  "  We  have  con- 
sidered, Nesta,  that  you  may  be  lonely;  and  if  it  is  your 
wish,  we  will  leave  our  card  on  your  new  acquaintance." 
Nesta  took  her  hand  and  kissed  it;  she  declined,  saying, 
"  No,"  without  voice. 

They  had  two  surprises  at  the  dinner-hour.  One  was  the 
card  of  Dartrey  Fenellan,  nameing  an  early  time  next  day 
for  his  visit ;  and  the  other  was  the  appearance  of  the  Eev. 
Stuart  Rem,  a  welcome  guest.  He  had  come  to  meet  his 
Bishop. 

He  had  come  also  with  serious  information  for  the  ladies, 
regarding  the  Eev.  Abram  Posterley.  No  sooner  was  this 
out  of  his  mouth  than  both  ladies  exclaimed :  "  Again  !  " 
So  serious  was  it,  that  there  had  been  a  consultation  at  the 
Wells  ;  Mr.  Posted  ey's  friend,  the  Rev.  Septimus  Barm  by, 
and  his  own  friend,  the  Rev.  Groseman  Buttermore,  had 
journeyed  from  London  to  sit  upon  the  case :  and,  '*  One 
hoped,"  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  said,  "  poor  Posterley  would  be 
restored  to  the  senses  he  periodically  abandoned."  He  laid 
a  hand  on  Tasso's  curls,  and  withdrew  it  at  a  menace  of 
teeth.  Tasso  would  submit  to  rough  caresses  from  Mr. 
Posterley;  he  would  not  allow  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  to  touch 
him.  Why  was  that?  Perhaps  for  the  reason  of  Mr. 
Posterley's  being  so  emotional  as  perpetually  to  fall  a  victim 
to  some  bright  glance  and  require  the  rescue  of  his  friends  ; 
the  slave  of  woman  had  a  magnet  for  animals  ! 

Dorothea  and  Virginia  were  drawn  to  compassionate 
sentiments,  in  spite  of  the  provokeing  recurrence  of  Mr. 
Posterley's  malady.  He  had  not  an  income  to  support  a 
wife.  Always  was  this  unfortunate  gentleman  entangling 
himself  in  a  passion  for  maid  or  widow  of  the  Wells  :  and  it 
was  desperate,  a  fever.  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  charitably  remarked 
on  his  taking  it  so  severely  because  of  his  very  scrupulous 
good  conduct.  They  pardoned  a  little  wound  to  their 
delicacy,  and  asked  :  "  On  this  occasion  ?  "  Mr.  Stuart  Rem 
named  a  linendraper's  establishment  near  the  pantiles, 
where  a  fair  young  woman  served.  "  And  her  reputation  ?  " 
That   was  an  article  less  presentable   through  plate -glass, 


ONE  OF  THE  SHADOWS  OF  THE  WOELD.      279 

It  seemed :  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  drew  a  prolonged  breath  into  his 
nose. 

"  It  is  most  melancholy  !  "  they  said  in  unison.  "  Nothing 
positive,"  said  he.  "But  the  suspicion  of  a  shadow,  Mr. 
Stuart  Rem  !  You  will  not  permit  it  ? "  He  stated,  that 
his  friend  Buttermove  might  have  influence.  Dorothea  said  : 
"When  I  think  of  Mr.  Posterley's  addiction  to  ceremonial 
observances,  and  to  matrimony,  I  cannot  but  think  of  a 
sentence  that  fell  from  Mr.  Durance  one  day,  with  reference 
to  that  division  of  our  Church :  he  called  it : — you  frown  ! 
and  I  would  only  quote  Mr.  Durance  to  you  in  support  of 
your  purer  form,  as  we  hold  it  to  be : — with  the  candles,  the 
vestments,  Confession,  alas  !  he  called  it,  'Rome  and  a  wife.' " 

Mr.  Stuart  I'em  nodded  an  enforced  assent:  he  testily 
dismissed  mention  of  Mr.  Durance,  and  resumed  on  Mr. 
Posterley. 

The  good  ladies  now,  with  some  of  their  curiosity  appeased, 
considerately  signified  to  him,  that  a  young  maiden  was 
present. 

The  young  maiden  had  in  heart  stuff  to  render  such  small 
gossip  a  hum  of  summer  midges.  She  did  not  imagine  the 
dialogue  concerned  her  in  any  way.  She  noticed  Mr.  Stuart 
Rem's  attentive  scrutiny  of  her  from  time  to  time.  She 
had  no  sensitiveness,  hardly  a  mind  for  things  about  her. 
To-morrow  she  was  to  see  Captain  Dartrey.  She  dwelt  on 
that  prospect,  for  an  escape  from  the  meshes  of  a  painful 
hour — the  most  woeful  of  the  hours  she  had  yet  known — 
passed  with  Judith  Marsett :  which  dragged  her  soul  through 
a  weltering  of  the  deeps,  tossed  her  over  and  over,  still  did 
it  with  her  ideas.  It  shocked  her  nevertheless  to  perceive 
how  much  of  the  world's  flayed  life  and  harsh  anatomy  she 
had  apprehended,  and  so  coldly,  previous  to  Mrs.  Marsett's 
lift  of  the  veil  in  her  story  of  herself:  a  skipping  revelation, 
terrible  enough  to  the  girl ;  whose  comparison  of  the 
previously  suspected  things  with  the  things  now  reveded 
imposed  the  thought  of  her  having  been  both  a  precocious 
and  a  callous  young  woman  :  a  kind  of  "Delphica  without 
the  erudition,"  her  mind  phrased  it  airily  over  her  chagrin. 
— And  the  silence  of  Dudley  proved  him  to  have  discovered 
his  error  in  choosing  such  a  person  :  he  was  wise,  and  she 
thanked  him.  She  had  an  envy  of  the  ignorant-innocents 
adored  by  the  young  man  she  cordially  thanked  for  quitting 


280  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

her.  She  admired  the  white  coat  of  armour  they  wore, 
whether  bestowed  on  them  by  their  constitution  or  by 
prurience.  For  while  combating  mankind  now  on  Judith 
IVIarsett's  behalf,  personally  .she  ran  like  a  hare  from  the 
mere  breath  of  an  association  with  the  very  minor  sort  of 
similar  charges  ;  ardently  she  desired  the  esteem  of  mankind: 
she  was  at  moments  abject.  But  had  she  actually  been 
aware  of  the  facts  now  known  ? 

Those  wits  of  the  virgin  young,  quickened  to  shrewdness 
by  their  budding  senses  —  and  however  vividly — require 
enlightenment  of  the  audible  and  visible  before  their  sterner 
feelings  can  be  heated  to  break  them  away  from  a  blushful 
dread  and  force  the  mind  to  know.  As  much  as  the  wilfully 
or  naturally  blunted,  the  intelligently  honest  have  to  learn 
by  touch:  only,  their  understandings  cannot  meanwhile  be  so 
wholly  obtuse  as  our  society's  matron,  acting  to  please  the 
tastes  of  the  civilised  man — a  creature  that  is  not  clean- 
washed  of  the  Turk  in  him — barbarously  exacts.  The  signor 
aforesaid  is  puzzled  to  read  the  woman,  who  is  after  all  in 
his  language  ;  but  when  it.  comes  to  reading  the  maiden,  sho 
appears  as  a  phosphorescent  hieroglyph  to  some  speculative 
Egyptologer;  and  he  insists  upon  distinct  lines  and  cha- 
racters ;  no  variations,  if  he  is  to  have  sense  of  surety.  Many 
a  young  girl  is  misread  by  the  amount  she  seems  to  know  of 
our  construction,  history,  and  dealings,  when  it  is  not  more 
than  her  sincere  ri|  eness  of  nature,  that  has  gathered  the 
facts  of  life  piotuse  about  her,  and  prompts  her  through  one 
or  other  of  the  instincts,  often  vanity,  to  show  them  to  be  not 
entirely  strange  to  her;  or  haply  her  filly  nature  is  having 
a  fling  at  the  social  harness  of  hypocrisy.  If  you  (it  is 
usually  through  the  length  of  ears  of  your  Novelist  that  the 
privilege  is  *  ours)  have  overheard  queer  communications 
passing  between  girls, — and  you  must  act  the  traitor  eaves- 
dropper or  Achilles  masquerader  to  overhear  so  clearly, — ■ 
these,  be  assured,  are  not  specially  the  signs  of  their  corrupt- 
ness. Even  the  exceptionally  cynical  are  chiefly  to  be  accused 
of  bad  manners.  Your  Moralist  is  a  myopic  preacher,  when 
he  stamps  infamy  on  them,  or  on  our  later  generation,  for 
the  kick  they  have  at  grandmother  decorum,  because  .you 
do  not  or  cannot  conceal  from  them  the  grinning  skeleton 
behind  it. 

Nesta  once  had  dreams  of  her  being  loved :  and  she  was 


ONE    OP   THE   SHADOWS    OF   THE   WORLD.  281 

to  love  in  return  for  a  love  that  excused  her  for  loving  double, 
treble ;  as  not  her  lover  could  love,  she  thought  with  grate- 
ful pride  in  the  treasure  she  was  to  pour  out  at  his  feet ;  as 
only  one  or  two  (and  they  were  women)  in  the  world  had 
ever  loved.  Her  notion  of  the  passion  was  parasitic:  man 
the  tree,  woman  the  bine:  but  the  bine  was  flame  to  enwind 
and  to  i<oar,  serpent  to  defend,  immortal  flowers  to  crown. 
The  choice  her  parents  had  made  for  her  in  Dudley,  behind 
the  mystery  she  had  scent  of,  nipped  her  dream,  and  prepared 
her  to  meet,  as  it  were,  the  fireside  of  a  November  day  instead 
of  springing  up  and  into  the  dawn's  blue  of  full  summer  with 
swallows  on  wing.  Her  station  in  exile  at  the  Wells  of  the 
weariful  rich,  under  the  weight  o#  the  sullen  secret,  un- 
enlivened by  Dudley's  courtship,  subdued  her  to  the  world's 
decrees ;  phrased  thus :  "  I  am  not  to  be  a  heroine."  The 
one  golden  edge  to  the  view  was,  that  she  would  greatly 
please  her  father.  Her  dream  of  a  love  was  put  away  like 
a  botanist's  pressed  weed.  But  after  hearing  Judith  Mar- 
sett's  wild  sobs,  it  had  no  place  in  her  cherishing.  For, 
above  all,  the  unhappy  woman  protested  love  to  have  been 
the  cause  of  her  misery.  She  moaned  of  M  her  Ned ;  "  of  his 
goodness,  his  deceitfulness,  her  trustfulness ;  his  pride  and 
the  vileness  of  his  friends;  her  longsutfering  and  her  break 
down  of  patience.  It  was  done  for  the  pi  oof  of  her  un- 
worthiness  of  Nesta's  friendship :  that  she  might  be  re- 
nounced, and  embraced.  She  told  the  pathetic  half  of  her 
story,  to  suit  the  gentle  ear,  whose  critical  keenness  was  lost 
in  compassion.  How  deep  the  compassion,  mixed  with  the 
girl's  native  respect  for  the  evil-fortuned,  may  be  judged  by 
her  inacce visibility  to  a  vulvar  tang  that  she  was  aware  of  in 
the  deluge  of  the  torrent,  where  Innocence  and  Ned  and  Love 
and  a  proud  Family  and  that  beast  Worrell  rolled  together 
in  leaping  and  shifting  involutions. 

A  darkness  of  thunder  was  on  the  girl.  Although  she 
was  not  one  to  shrink  beneath  it  like  the  ismall  biid  of  the 
woods,  she  had  to  say  within  hei  self  many  times,  M  I  shall 
see  Captain  Dartrey  to-morrow,"  for  a  recovery  and  a 
nerving.  And  with  her  thought  of  him,  her  tooth  was  at 
her  underlip,  she  struggled  abashed,  in  hesitation  over  men's 
views  of  her  sex,  and  how  to  bring  a  frank  mind  to  meet 
him  ;  to  be  sure  of  his  not  at  heart  despising ;  until  his 
character  swam  defined  and  bright  across  her  scope.     "  He  is 


282  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

go<>d  to  women."  Fragments  of  conversation,  principally 
her  father's,  had  pictured  Captain  Dartrey  to  her  most  man- 
fully tolerant  toward  a  frivolous  wife. 

He  came  early  in  the  morning,  instantly  after  breakfast. 

Not  two  minutes  had  passed  before  she  was  at  home  with 
him.  His  words,  his  looks,  revived  her  spirit  of  romance., 
gave  her  the  very  landscapes,  and  new  ones.  Yes,  he  was 
her  hero.  But  his  manner  made  him  also  an  adored  big 
brother,  stamped  splendid  by  the  perils  of  life.  He  sat 
square,  as  if  alert  to  rise,  with  an  elbow  on  a  knee,  and  the 
readiest  turn  of  head  to  speakers,  the  promptest  of  answers, 
eyes  that  were  a  brighter  accent  to  the  mouth,  so  vividly  did 
look  accompany  tone.  Me  rallied  her,  chatted  and  laughed ; 
pleased  the  ladies  by  laughing  at  Colney  Durance,  and 
inspired  her  with  happiness  when  he  spoke  of  England : — 
that  "  One  has  to  be  in  exile  awhile,  to  see  the  place  she 
takes." 

"  Oh,  Captain  Dartrey,  I  do  like  to  hear  you  sav  so,"  she 
cried ;  his  voice  was  reassuring  also  in  other  directions :  it 
rang  of  true  man. 

He  volunteered,  however,  a  sad  admission,  that  England 
had  certainly  lost  something  of  the  great  nation's  proper 
conception  of  Force :  the  meaning  of  it,  virtue  of  it,  and 
need  for  it.  "  She  bleats  for  a  lesson,  and  will  get  her 
lesson." 

But  if  we  have  Captain  Dartrey,  we  shall  come  through  ! 
So  said  the  sparkle  of  Nesta's  eyes. 

"  She  is  very  like  her  father,"  he  said  to  the  ladies. 

"  We  think  so,"  they  remarked. 

"  There's  the  mother  too,"  said  he ;  and  Nesta  saw,  that 
the  ladies  shadowed. 

They  retired.  Then  she  begged  him  to  "  tell  her  of  her 
own  dear  mother."  The  news  gave  comfort,  except  for  the 
suspicion,  that  the  dear  mother  was  being  worn  by  her 
entertaining  so  largely.     "  Papa  is  to  blame,"  said  Nesta. 

"  A  momentary  strain.  Your  father  has  an  idea  of  Parlia- 
ment ;  one  of  the  London  Boroughs." 

"  And  I,  Captain  Dartrey,  when  do  I  go  back  to  them  ?  " 

"  Your  mother  comes  down  to  consult  with  you.  And  now, 
do  we  ride  together  ?  " 

"  You  are  free  ?  " 

•'  My  uncle,  Lord  Clan,  lets  me  out." 


05TE    OF   THE    SHADOWS   OF    THE   WORLD.  283 

"  To-day  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes  !  " 

"This  morning?" 

"  In  an  hour's  time." 

"  I  will  be  ready." 

Nesta  sent  a  line  of  excuse  to  Mrs.  Marsett,  throwing  in  a 
fervent  adjective  for  balm. 

That  fair  person  rode  out  with  the  troop  under  conduct 
of  the  hallowing  squire  of  the  stables,  and  passed  by  Nesta 
on  horseback  beside  Dartrey  Fenellan  at  the  steps  of  a  huge 
hotel ;  issuing  from  which,  pretty  Mrs.  Blathenoy  was  about 
to  mount.  Mrs.  Marsett  looked  ahead  and  coloured,  but  she 
could  not  restrain  one  look  at  Nesta,  that  embraced  her 
cavalier.  Nesta  waved  hand  to  her,  and  nodded.  Mrs. 
Marsett  withdrew  her  eyes ;  her  doing  so,  silent  though  it 
was,  resembled  the  drag  back  to  sea  of  the  shingle-wave 
below  her,  such  a  screaming  of  tattle  she  heard  in  the  ques- 
tions discernible  through  the  attitude  of  the  cavalier  and  of 
the  lady,  who  paused  to  stare,  before  the  leap  up  in  the 
saddle.  'Who  is  she? — what  is  she? — how  did  you  know 
her  ? — where  does  she  come  from  ? — wears  her  hat  on  her 
brows  !  —  huge  gauntlets  out  of  style  ! — shady  !  shady  ! 
shady ! '  And  as  always  during  her  nervous  tumults,  the 
name  of  Worrell  made  diapason  of  that  execrable  uproar. 
Her  hat  on  her  brows  had  an  air  of  dash,  defying  a  world  it 
could  win,  as  Ned  well  knew.  But  she  scanned  her  gauntlets 
disapprovingly.  This  town,  we  are  glad  to  think,  has  a 
bright  repute  for  glove-shops.  And  Mrs.  Marsett  could 
applaud  herself  for  sparing  Ned's  money :  she  had  mended 
her  gloves,  if  they  were  in  the  fashion. — But  how  does  the 
money  come?  Hark  at  that  lady  and  that  gentleman  ques- 
tioning Miss  Eadnor  of  everything,  everything  in  the  world 
about  her !  Not  a  word  do  they  get  from  x\Liss  Radnor. 
And  it  makes  them  the  more  inquisitive.  Idle  rich  people, 
comfortably  fenced  round,  are  so  inquisitive !  And  Mrs. 
Marsett,  loving  Nesta  for  the  notice  of  her,  maddened  by  the 
sting  of  tongues  it  was  causing,  heard  the  wash  of  the 
beach,  without  consciousness  of  analogies,  but  with  a  body- 
ready  to  jump  out  of  skin,  out  of  life,  in  desperation  at  the 
sound. 

She  was  all  impulse;  a  shifty  piece  of  un  mercenary  strata- 
gem occasionally  directing  it.     Arrived  at  her  lodgings,  she 


284  ONE   OP   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

wrote  to  Nesta :  "  I  entreat  you  not  to  notice  me,  if  von  pa?s 
me  on  the  road  again.  Let  me  drop,  never  mind  how  low 
I  go.  I  was  born  to  be  wretched.  A  line  from  you,  just  a 
line  now  and  then,  only  to  show  me  I  am  not  forgotten.  I 
have  had  a  beautiful  dream.  I  am  not  bad  in  reality ;  I 
love  goodness,  I  know.  I  cling  to  the  thought  of  you,  as 
my  rescue,  I  declare.  Please,  let  me  hear :  if  it's  not  more 
than  *  good  day '  and  your  initials  on  a  post-card." 
The  letter  brought  Nesta  in  person  to  her. 


CHAPTEE  XXX. 

THE   BURDEN   UPON   NESTA. 

Could  there  be  confidences  on  the  subject  of  Mrs.  Marsett 
with  Captain  Dartrey? — Nesta  timidly  questioned  her  heart: 
she  knocked  at  an  iron  door  shut  upon  a  thing  alive.  The 
very  asking  froze  her,  almost  to  stopping  her  throbs  of  pity 
for  the  woman.  With  Captain  Dartrey,  if  with  any  one ; 
but  with  no  one.  Not  with  her  mother  even.  Toward  her 
mother,  she  felt  guilty  of  knowing.  Her  mother  had  a 
horror  of  that  curtain.  Nesta  had  seen  it,  and  had  taken 
her  impressions ;  she,  too,  shrank  from  it ;  the  more  when 
impelled  to  draw  near  it.  Louise  de  Seilles  would  have 
been  another  self;  Louise  was  away ;  when  to  return,  the 
dear  friend  could  not  state.  Speaking  in  her  ear,  would  have 
been  possible ;  the  theme  precluded  writing. 

It  was  ponderous  combustible  new  knowledge  of  life  for 
a  girl  to  hold  unaided.  In  the  presence  of  the  simple  silvery 
ladies  Dorothea  and  Virginia,  she  had  qualms,  as  if  she 
were  breaking  out  in  spots  before  them.  The  ladies  fancied, 
that  Mr.  Stuart  Eem  had  hinted  to  them  oddly  of  the  girl; 
and  that  he  might  have  meant,  she  appeared  a  little  too 
cognizant  of  poor  Mr.  Abram  Posterley's  malady— as  girls, 
in  these  terrible  days,  only  too  frequently,  too  brazenly,  are. 
They  discoursed  to  her  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  manners, 
nay,  the  morals  of  young  Englishwomen,  once  patterns  ! 
They  sketched  the  young  English  gentlewoman  of  their 
time  ;  indeed  a  beauty ;  with  round  red  cheeks,  and  rounded 


THE  BURDEN  UPON  NESTA.  285 

open  eyes,  and  a  demure  shut  mouth,  a  puppet's  divine 
ignorance;  inoffensive  in  the  highest  degree,  rightly  wor- 
shipped. They  were  earnest,  and  Nesta  struck  at  herself. 
She  wished  to  be  as  they  had  been,  reserving  her  painful 
independence. 

They  were  good:  they  were  the  ideal  women  of  our 
country;  which  demands  if  it  be  but  the  semblance  of  the 
sureness  of  stationary  excellence ;  such  as  we  have  in  Sevres 
and  Dresden,  polished  bright  and  smooth  as  ever  by  the 
morning's  flick  of  a  duster;  perhaps  in  danger  of  accidents 
— accidents  must  be  kept  away ;  but  enviable,  admirable,  we 
think,  when  we  are  not  thinking  of  seed  sown  or  help  given 
to  the  generations  to  follow.  Nesta  both  envied  and  admired  ; 
she  revered  them ;  yet  her  sharp  intelligence,  larger  in  the 
extended  boundary  of  thought  coming  of  strange  crimson- 
lighted  new  knowledge,  discerned  in  a  dimness  what  blest 
conditions  had  fixed  them  on  their  beautiful  barren  eminence. 
Without  challengeing  it,  she  had  a  rebellious  rush  of  sym- 
pathy for  our  evil-fortuned  of  the  world ;  the  creatures  in  the 
battle,  the  wounded,  trodden,  mud-stained :  and  it  alarmed 
her  lest  she  should  be  at  heart  one  out  of  the  fold. 

She  had  the  sympathy,  nevertheless,  and  renewing  and 
increasing  with  the  pulsations  of  a  compassion  that  she  took 
for  her  reflective  survey.  The  next  time  she  saw  Dartrey 
Fenellan,  she  was  assured  of  him,  as  being  the  man  who 
might  be  spoken  to ;  and  by  a  woman  :  though  not  by  a 
girl ;  not  spoken  to  by  her.  The  throb  of  the  impulse  pre- 
cipitating speech  subsided  to  a  dumb  yearning,  lie  noticed 
her  look :  he  was  unaware  of  the  human  sun  in  the  girl's 
eyes  taking  an  image  of  him  for  permanent  habitation  in 
her  breast.  That  face  of  his,  so  clearly  lined,  quick,  firm, 
with  the  blue  smile  on  it  like  the  gleam  of  a  sword  coming 
out  of  sheath,  did  not  mean  hardness,  she  could  have  vowed. 
O  that  some  woman,  other  than  the  unhappy  woman  herself, 
would  speak  the  words  denied  to  a  girl !  He  was  the  man 
who  would  hearken  and  help.  Essential  immediate  help  was 
to  be  given  besides  the  noble  benevolence  of  mind.  Novel 
ideas  of  manliness  and  the  world's  need  for  it  were  printed 
on  her  understanding.  For  what  could  women  do  in  aid  of 
a  good  cause !  She  fawned :  she  deemed  herself  very  de- 
spicably her  hero's  inferior.  The  thought  of  him  enclosed 
her.     In  a  prison,  the  gaoler  is  a  demi-God— hued  bright 


286  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

or  black,  as  it  may  be ;  and,  by  the  present  arrangement 
between  the  sexes,  she,  whom  the  world  allowed  not  to  have 
an  intimation  from  eye  or  ear,  or  from  nature's  blood-ripe- 
ness in  commune  with  them,  of  certain  matters,  which  it 
suffers  to  be  notorious,  necessarily  directed  her  appeal  almost 
in  wor-hip  to  the  man,  who  was  the  one  man  endowed  to 
relieve,  and  who  locked  her  mouth  for  shame. 

Thus  was  she,  too  being  put  into  her  woman's  harness  of 
the  bit  and  the  blinkers,  and  taught  to  know  herself  for  the 
weak  thing,  the  gentle  parasite,  which  the  fiction  of  our 
civilization  expects  her,  caressingly  a»>d  contemptuous'y,  to 
become  in  the  active,  while  it  is  exacted  of  her — 0  Comedy 
of  Clowns  ! — that  in  the  passive  she  be  a  rock-fortress  im- 
pregnable, not  to  speak  of  magically  encircled.  She  must 
also  have  her  feelings ;  she  must  not  be  an  «*innatural 
creature.  And  she  must  have  a  sufficient  intelligence;  for 
her  stupidity  does  not  flatter  the  possessing  man.  It  is  not 
an  organic  growth  that  he  desires  in  his  mate,  but  a  happy 
composition.     You  see  the  world  which  comes  of  the  pair. 

This  burning.  Nesta,  Victor's  daughter,  tempered  by 
Nataly's  milder  blood,  was  a  girl  in  whom  the  hard  shocks  of 
the  knowledge  of  life,  perforce  of  the  hardness  upon  pure 
metal,  left  a  strengthening  for  generous  imagination.  She 
did  not  sit  to  brood  on  her  injured  senses  or  set  them  through 
speculation  touching  heat ;  they  were  taken  up  and  con- 
sumed by  the  fire  of  her  mind.  Nor  had  she  leisure  for  the 
abhorrences,  in  a  heart  all  flowing  to  give  aid,  and  uplift  and 
restore.  Self  was  as  urgent  in  her  as  in  most  of  the  young; 
but  the  gift  of  humour,  which  had  previously  diverted  it, 
was  now  the  quick  feeling  for  her  sisterhood,  through  the 
one  piteous  example  she  knew ;  and  broadening  it,  through 
her  insurgent  abasement  on  their  behalf,  which  was  her 
scourged  pride  of  sex.  She  but  faintly  thought  of  blaming 
the  men  whom  her  soul  besought  for  justice,  for  common 
kindness,  to  women.  There  was  the  danger,  that  her  aroused 
young  ignorance  would  charge  the  whole  of  the  misery  about 
and  abroad  upon  the  stronger  of  those  two  :  and  another 
danger,  that  the  vision  of  the  facts  below  the  surface  would 
discolour  and  disorder  her  views  of  existence.  But  she 
loved,  she  sprang  to,  the  lighted  world;  and  she  had  figures 
of  male  friends,  to  which  to  cling;  and  they  helped  in 
animating  glorious  historical  figures  on  the  world's  library- 


THE  BURDEN  UPON  NESTA.  287 

shelves  or  under  yet  palpitating  earth.  Promise  of  a  steady- 
balance  of  her  nature,  too,  was  shown  in  the  absence  of  any 
irritable  urgency  to  be  doing,  when  her  bosom  bled  to  help. 
Beyond  the  resolve,  that  she  would  not  abandon  the  woman 
who  had  made  confession  to  her,  she  formed  no  conscious 
resolutions.  Far  ahead  down  her  journey  of  the  years  to 
come,  she  did  see  muffled  things  she  might  hope  and  would 
strive  to  do.  They  were  chrysalis  shapes.  Above  all,  she 
flew  her  blind  quickened  heart  on  the  wings  of  an  imagi- 
native force ;  and  those  of  the  young  who  can  do  that,  are 
in  their  blood  incorruptible  by  dark  knowledge,  irradiated 
under  darkness  in  the  mind.  Let  but  the  throb  be  kept  for 
others.  That  is  the  one  secret,  for  redemption,  if  not  for 
preservation. 

Victor*  descended  on  his  marine  London  to  embrace  his 
girl,  full  of  regrets  at  Fredi's  absence  from  the  great  whirl 
'  overhead,'  as  places  of  multitudinous  assembly,  where  he 
shone,  always  appeared  to  him.  But  it  was  not  to  last  long  ; 
she  would  soon  be  on  the  surface  again !  At  the  first  clasp 
of  her,  he  chirped  some  bars  of  her  song.  He  challenged 
her  to  duet  before  the  good  ladies,  and  she  kindled,  she  was 
caught  up  by  his  gaiety,  wondering  at  herself;  faintly  aware 
of  her  not  being  spontaneous.  And  she  made  her  father 
laugh,  just  in  the  old  way;  and  looked  at  herself  in  his 
laughter,  with  the  thought,  that  she  could  not  have  become 
so  changed  ;  by  which  the  girl  was  helped  to  jump  to  her 
humour.  Victor  turned  his  full  front  to  Dorothea  and  Vir- 
ginia, one  sunny  beam  of  delight :  and  although  it  was  Mr. 
Stuart  Bern  who  was  naughty  Nesta's  victim,  and  although 
it  seemed  a  trespass  on  her  part  to  speak  in  such  a  manner 
of  a  clerical  gentleman,  they  were  seized ;  they  were  the 
opposite  partners  of  a  laughing  quadrille,  lasting  till  they 
were  tired  out. 

Victor  had  asked  his  girl,  if  she  sang  on  a  Sunday.  The 
ladies  remembered,  that  she  had  put  the  question  for  per- 
mission to  Mr.  Stuart  Bern,  who  was  opposed  to  secular 
singing. 

'*  And  what  did  he  say  ?  "  said  Victor. 

Nesta  shook  head  :  "  It  was  not  what  he  said,  papa ;  it  was 
his  look.  His  duty  compelled  him,  though  he  loves  music. 
He  had  the  look  of  a  Patriarch  putting  his  handmaiden  away 
into  the  desert." 


288  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Dorothea  and  Virginia,  in  spite  of  protests  within,  laughed 
to  streams.  They  recollected  the  look  ;  she  had  given  the 
portrait  of  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  in  the  act  of  repudiating  secular 
song. 

Victor  conjured  up  a  day  when  this  darling  Fredi,  a  child, 
stood  before  a  famous  picture  in  the  Brera,  at  Milan  :  when 
he  and  her  mother  noticed  the  child's  very  studious  grave- 
ness ;  and  they  had  talked  of  it ;  he  remarking,  that  she 
disapproved  of  the  Patriarch;  and  Nataly,  that  she  was 
taken  with  Hagar's  face. 

He  seemed  surprised  at  her  not  having,  heard  from 
Dudley. 

"How  is  that?"  said  he. 

"■Most  probably  because  he  has  not  written,  papa." 

He  paused  after  the  cool  reply.  She  had  no  mournful 
gaze  at  all ;  but  in  the  depths  of  the  clear  eyes  he  knew  so 
well,  there  was  a  coil  of  something  animate,  whatever  it 
might  be.     And  twice  she  drew  a  heavy  breath. 

He  mentioned  it  in  London.  Nataly  telegraphed  at  night 
for  her  girl  to  meet  her  next  day  at  Dartrey's  hotel. 

Their  meeting  was  incomprehensibly  joyless  to  the  hearts 
of  each,  though  it  was  desired,  and  had  long  been  desired, 
and  mother  was  mother,  daughter  daughter,  without  dimi- 
nution of  love  between  them .  They  held  hands,  they  kissed 
and  clasped,  they  showered  their  tender  phrases  with  full 
warm  truth,  and  looked  into  eyes  and  surely  saw  one 
another.  But  the  heart  of  each  was  in  a  battle  of  its  own, 
taking  wounds  or  crying  for  supports.  Whether  to  speak  to 
her  girl  at  once,  despite  the  now  vehement  contrary  counsel  of 
Victor,  was  Nataly 's  deliberation,  under  the  thought  of  the 
young  creature's  perplexity  in  not  seeing  her  at  the  house  of 
the  Duvidney  ladies :  while  Nesta  conjured  in  a  flash  the 
past  impressions  of  her  mother's  shrinking  distaste  from  any 
such  hectic  themes  as  this  which  burdened  and  absorbed  her; 
and  she  was  almost  joining  to  it,  through  sympathy  with 
any  thought  or  feeling  of  one  in  whom  she  had  such  pride ; 
she  had  the  shudder  of  revulsion.  Further,  Nataly  put  on 
rather  cravenly  an  air  of  distress,  or  she  half  designingly 
permitted  her  trouble  to  be  seen,  by  way  of  affecting  tier 
girl's  recollection  when  the  confession  was  to  come,  that 
Nesta  might  then  understand  her  to  have  been  restrained 
from  speaking,  not   evasive   of  her   duty.      The   look   was 


THE   BURDEN   UPON   NESTA.  289 

interpreted  by  Nesta  as  belonging  to  the  social  annoyances 
dating,  in  her  calendar,  from  Creckholt,  apprehensively 
dreaded  at  Lakelands.  She  hinted  asking,  and  her  mother 
nodded  ;  not  untruthfully ;  but  she  put  on  a  briskness  after 
the  nod  ;  and  a  doubt  was  driven  into  Nesta's  bosom. 

Her  dear  Skepsey  was  coming  down  to  her  for  a  holiday, 
she  was  glad  to  hear.  Of  Dudley,  there  was  no  word. 
Nataly  shunned  his  name,  with  a  superstitious  dread  lest  any 
mention  of  him  should  renew  pretensions  that  she  hoped, 
and  now  supposed,  were  quite  withdrawn.  So  she  had  told 
poor  Mr.  Barinby  only  yesterday,  at  his  humble  request  to 
know.  He  had  seen  Dudley  on  the  pantiles,  walking  with 
a  young  lady,  he  said.  And  "  he  feared,"  he  said ;  using  a 
pardonable  commonplace  of  deceit.  Her  compassion  accounted 
for  the  "  fear  "  which  was  the  wish,  and  caused  her  not  to 
think  it  particularly  strange,  that  he  should  imagine  Dudley 
to  have  quitted  the  field.  Now  that  a  disengaged  Dartrey 
Fenellan  was  at  hand,  poor  Mr.  Barmby  could  have  no  chance. 

Dartrey  came  to  her  room  by  appointment.  She  wanted 
to  see  him  alone,  and  he  informed  her,  that  Mrs.  Blathenoy 
was  in  the  hotel,  and  would  certainly  receive  and  amuse 
Nesta  for  any  length  of  time. 

"  I  will  take  her  up,"  said  Nataly,  and  rose,  and  she  sat 
immediately,  and  fluttered  a  hand  at  her  breast.  She 
laughed  :  "  Perhaps  I'm  tired  !  " 

Dartrey  took  Nesta. 

He  returned,  saying :  "  There's  a  lift  in  the  hotel.  Do 
the  stairs  affect  you  at  all  ?  " 

She  fenced  his  sharp  look.  "  Laziness,  I  fancy ;  age  is 
coming  on.     How  is  it  Mrs.  Blathenoy  is  here  ?  " 

"Well!  how?" 

"Foolish  curiosity?" 

"  I  think  I  have  made  her  of  service.  I  did  not  bring  the 
lady  here." 

"Of  service  to  whom ? " 

"  Why,  to  Victor  !  " 

"Has  Victor  commissioned  you?" 

"  You  can  bear  to  hear  it.  Her  husband  knows  the  story. 
He  has  a  grudge  .  .  .  commerciu.  reasons.  I  fancy  it  is, 
that  Victor  stood  against  his  paper  at  the  table  of  the  Bank. 
Blathenoy  vowed  blow  for  blow.  But  I  think  the  little 
woman  holds  him  in.     She  says  she  does." 

V 


290  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS, 

"  Victor  prompted  you  ?  " 

"  It  occurred  as  it  occurred." 

"  She  does  it  for  love  of  us  ? — Oh !  I  can't  trifle. 
Dartrey ! " 

"  Tell  me." 

"  First,  you  haven't  let  me  know  what  you  think  of  my 
Nesta." 

"  She's  a  dear  good  girl." 

'*  Not  so  interesting  to  you  as  a  flighty  little  woman  ! " 

"  She  has  a  speck  of  some  sort  on  her  mind." 

Nataly  spied  at  Dudley's  behaviour,  and  said :  "  That  will 
wear  away.     Is  Mr.  Blathenoy  much  here  ?  " 

"As  often  as  he  can  come,  1  believe." 

"That  is?  .  .  ." 

44 1  have  seen  him  twice." 

44  His  wife  remains  ?  " 

44  Fixed  here  for  the  season.* 

44  My  friend  ! " 

44  No  harm,  no  barm  !  " 

"But— to  her!" 

44  You  have  my  word  of  honour.* 

44  Yes:  and  she  is  doing  you  a  service,  at  your  request; 
and  you  occasionally  reward  her  with  thanks ;  and  she  sees 
you  are  a  man  of  honour.     Do  you  not  know  women  ?  " 

Dartrey  blew  his  pooh-pooh  on  feminine  suspicions. 
44  There's  very  little  left  of  the  Don  Amoroso  in  me.  Women 
don't  worship  stone  figures." 

44  They  do : — like  the  sea-birds.  And  what  do  you  say  to 
me,  Dartrey  ? — I  can  confess  it :  I  am  one  of  them :  I  love 
you.  When  last  you  left  England,  I  kissed  your  hand.  It 
was  because  of  your  manly  heart  in  that  stone  figure.  I 
kept  from  crying:  you  used  to  scorn  us  English  for  the 
4  whimpering  fits '  you  said  we  enjoy  and  must  have — in 
books,  if  we  can't  get  them  up  for  ourselves.  I  could  have 
prayed  to  have  you  as  brother  or  son.  I  love  my  Victor 
the  better  for  his  love  of  you.  Oh! — poor  soul! — how  he 
is  perverted  since  that  building  of  Lakelands !  He  cannot 
take  soundings  of  the  things  he  does.  Formerly  he  confided 
in  me,  in  all  things:  now  not  one; — I  am  the  chief  person 
to  deceive.  If  only  he  bad  waited  !  We  are  in  a  network 
of  intrigues  and  schemes,  every  artifice,  in  London — tempting 
one  to  hate  simple  worthy  people,  who  naturally  have  their 


THE  BURDEN  UPON  NESTA.  291 

views,  and  see  me  an  impostor,  and  tolerate  ma,  fascinated 
by  him : — or  bribed — it  has  to  be  said.  There  are  ways  of 
bribeing.  I  trust  he  nriy  not  have  in  the  end  to  pay  too 
heavily  for  succeeding.  He  ?eems  a  man  pushed  by  Destiny ; 
not  irresponsible,  but  less  responsible  than  most.  He  is 
desperately  tempted  by  his  never  failing.  Whatever  he 
does !  ...  it  is  true !  And  it  sets  me  thinking  of  those 
who  have  never  had  an  ailment,  up  to  a  certain  age,  when 
the  killing  blow  comes.  Latterly  I  have  seen  into  him: 
I  never  did  before.  Had  I  been  stronger,  I  might  have 
saved,  or  averted.  .• .  .  But,  you  will  say,  the  stronger  woman 
would  not  have  occupied  my  place.  I  must  have  been  blind 
too.  I  did  not  see,  that  his  nature  shrinks  from  the  thing 
it  calls  up.  He  dreads  the  exposure  he  courts — or  has  to 
combat  with  all  nis  powers.  It  has  been  a  revelation  to  me 
of  him — life  as  well.  Nothing  stops  him.  Now  it  is  Parlia- 
ment— a  vacant  London  Borough.  He  counts  on  a  death  : 
Ah !  terrible !  I  have  it  like  a  snake's  bite  night  and 
day." 

Nataly  concluded  :  "  There  :  it  has  done  me  some  good  to 
speak.     I  feel  so  base."     She  breathed  heavily. 

Dartrey  took  her  hand  and  bent  his  lips  to  it.  "  Happy 
the  woman  who  has  not  moie  to  speak!  How  long  will 
Nesta  stay  here  ?  " 

"You  will  watch  over  her,  Dartrey?  She  stays — her 
father  wishes — up  to  ...  ah  !  We  can  hardly  be  in  such 
extreme  peril.  He  has  her  doctor,  her  lawyer,  and  her 
butler — a  favourite  servant — to  check,  and  influence,  her. 
She — you  know  who  it  is ! — does  not,  I  am  now  convinced* 
mean  persecution.  She  was  never  a  mean-minded  woman. 
Oh  !  I  could  wish  she  were.  They  say  she  is  going.  Then 
I  am  to  be  made  an  •  honest  woman  of.'  Victor  wants  Nesta, 
now  that  she  is  away,  to  stay  until  .  .  .  You  understand. 
He  feels  she  is  safe  from  any  possible  kind  of  harm  with 
those  good  ladies.  And  I  feel  she  is  the  safer  for  having 
you  near.  Otherwise,  how  I  should  pray  to  have  you  with 
us  !  Daily  I  have  to  pass  through,  well,  something  like  the 
ordeal  of  the  red-hot  ploughshares — and  without  the  inno- 
cence, dear  friend !  But  it's  best  that  my  girl  should  not 
have  to  be  doing  the  same;  though  she  would  have  the 
innocence.  But  she  writhes  under  any  shadow  of  a  blot. 
And  for  her  to  learn  the   things   that   are  in   the  world, 


292  ONE  OF   OUR  CONQUERORS. 

through  her  mother's  history  ! — and  led  to  know  it  by  the 
falling  away  of  friends,  or  say,  acquaintances  !  However 
ignorant  at  present,  she  learns  from  a  mere  nothing.  I 
dread  !  .  .  .  In  a  moment,  she  is  a  blaze  of  light.  There 
have  been  occurrences.  Only  Victor  could  have  overcome 
them !  I  had  to  think  it  better  for  my  girl,  that  she  was 
absent.  We  are  in  such  a  whirl  up  there  !  So  I  work  round 
again  to  '.how  long  ? '  and  the  picture  of  myself  counting 
the  breaths  of  a  dying  woman.  The  other  day  I  was  told 
I  was  envied  !  " 

"  Battle,  battle,  battle ; — for  all  of  us,  in  every  position  !  " 
said  Dartrey,  sharply,  to  clip  a  softness  :  "  except  when 
one's  attending  on  an  invalid  uncle.  Then  it's  peace;  rather 
like  extinction.  And  I  can't  be  crying  for  the  end  either. 
I  bite  my  moustache  and  tap  foot  on  the  floor,  out  of  his 
hearing ;  make  believe  I'm  patient.     Now  I'll  fetch  Nesta." 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  came  down  with  an  arm  on  Nesta's 
shoulder.  She  held  a  telegram,  and  said  to  Nataly  :  "  What 
can  this  mean?  It's  from  my  husband;  he  puts  'Jacob:' 
my  husband's  Christian  name : — so  like  my  husband,  where 
there's  no  concealment !  There — he  says  :  '  Down  to-night 
else  pack  ready  start  to-morrow.'  Can  it  signify,  afTairs  are 
bad  with  my  husband  in  the  city  ?  " 

It  had  that  signification  to  Nataly's  understanding.  At 
the  same  time,  the  pretty  little  woman's  absurd  lisping 
repetition  of  'my  husband'  did  not  seem  without  design  to 
inflict  the  wound  it  caused. 

In  reality,  it  was  not  malicious ;  it  came  of  the  bewitch- 
ment of  a  silly  tongue  by  her  knowledge  of  the  secret  to  be 
controlled  :  and  after  contrasting  her  fortunes  with  Nataly's, 
on  her  way  down-stairs,  she  had  comforted  herself  by  saying, 
that  at  least  she  had  a  husband.  She  was  not  aware  that 
she  dealt  a  hurt  until  she  had  found  a  small  consolation  in 
the  indulgence :  for  Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan  admired  this 
commanding  figure  of  a  woman,  who  could  not  legally  say 
that  which  the  woman  he  admired  less,  if  at  all,  legally 
could  say. 

"  I  must  leave  you  to  interpret,"  Nataly  remarked. 

Mrs.  Blathenoy  resented  her  unbefitting  queenly  style. 
For  this  reason,  she  abstained  from  an  intended  leading  up 
to  mention  of  the  '  singular-looking  lady  '  seen  riding  with 
Miss  Kadnor  more  than  once ;  and  as  to  whom,  Miss  liadnor 


THE   BURDEN   UFON   NESTA.  293 

(for  one  gives  her  the  name)  had  not  just  now,  when 
questioned,  spoken  very  clearly.  So  the  mother's  alarms 
were  not  raised. 

And  really  it  was  a  pity,  Mrs.  Blathenoy  said  to  Dartrey 
subsequently ;  finding  him  colder  than  before  Mrs.  Radnor's 
visir ;  it  was  a  pity,  because  a  young  woman  in  Miss  Radnor's 
position  should  not  by  any  possibility  be  seen  in  association 
with  a  person  of  commonly  doubtful  appearance. 

She  was  denied  the  petulant  satisfaction  of  rousing  the 
championship  bitter  to  her.  Dartrey  would  not  deliver  an 
opinion  on  Miss  Radnor's  conduct.  He  declined,  moreover, 
to  assist  in  elucidating  the  telegram  by  "  looking  here,"  and 
poring  over  the  lines  beside  a  bloomy  cheek.  He  was  petu- 
lantly whipped  on  the  arm  with  her  glove,  and  pouted  at. 
And  it  was  then — and  then  only  or  chiefly  through  Nataly's 
recent  allusion — that  the  man  of  honour  had  his  quakings 
in  view  of  the  quagmire,  where  he  was  planted  on  an  exceed- 
ingly narrow  causeway,  not  of  the  firmest.  For  she  was  a 
prerty  little  woman,  one  of  the  prize  gifts  of  the  present 
education  of  women  to  the  men  who  are  for  having  them 
quiescent  domestic  patterns ;  and  her  artificial  ingenuousness 
or  candid  frivolities  came  to  her  by  nature  to  kindle  the 
nature  of  the  gentleman  on  the  other  bank  of  the  stream, 
and  witch  him  to  the  plunge,  so  greatly  mutually  regretted 
after  taken :  an  old  duec  to  the  moon. 

Dartrey  escaped  to  the  Club,  where  he  had  a  friend.  The 
friend  was  Colonel  Sudley,  one  of  the  modern  studious 
officers,  not  in  good  esteem  with  the  authorities.  He  had 
not  forgiven  Dartrey  for  the  intemperateness  which  cut  off 
a  brilliant  soldier  from  the  service.  He  was  reduced  to 
acknowledge,  however,  that  there  was  a  sparkling  defense 
for  him  to  reply  with,  in  the  shape  of  a  fortune  gained :  and 
where  we  have  a  Society  forcing  us  to  live  up  to  an  expensive 
level,  very  trying  to  a  soldier's  income,  a  fortune  gained 
will  offer  excuses  for  misconduct  short  of  disloyal  or  illegal. 
They  talked  of  the  state  of  the  Army  :  we  are  moving. 
True,  and  at  the  last  Review,  the  ■  march  past '  was  performed 
before  a  mounted  generalissimo  profoundly  asleep,  head  on 
breast.  Our  English  military  '  moving '  may  now  be  likened 
to  Somnolency  on  Horseback.  "  Oh,  come,  no  rancour," 
gaid  the  colonel ;  "  you  know  he's  a  kind  old  boy  at  heart  ♦, 
nowhere  a  more  affectionate  man  alive  1 " 


294  ONE    OF    OUE    CONQUERORS. 

"  So  the  sycophants  are  sure  of  posts  !  " 

"  Come,  I  say  !     He's  devoted  to  the  Service." 

*'  Invalid  him,  and  he  shall  have  a  good  epitaph." 

"  He's  not  so  responsible  as  the  taxpayer." 

"There  you  touch  home.  Mother  Goose  can't  imagine 
the  need  for  defense  until  a  hand's  at  her  feathers." 

"What  about  her  shrieks  now  and  then?  " 

"  Indigestion  of  a  surfeit  ?  " 

They  were  in  a  laughing  wrangle  when  two  acquaintances 
of  the  colonel's  came  near.  One  of  them  recognized  Dartrey. 
He  changed  a  prickly  subject  to  one  that  is  generally  as 
acceptable  to  the  servants  of  Mars.  His  companion  said : 
"  Who  is  the  girl  out  with  Judith  Marsett?  "  He  flavoured 
eulogies  of  the  girl's  good  looks  in  easy  garrison  English. 
She  was  praised  for  sitting  her  horse  well.  One  had  met 
her  on  the  parade,  in  the  afternoon,  walking  with  Mrs. 
Marsett.  Colonel  Sudley  had  seen  them  on  horseback.  He 
remarked  to  Dartrey :  "  And  by  the  way,  you're  a  clean 
stretch  ahead  of  us.  I've  seen  you  go  by  these  windows, 
with  the  young  lady  on  one  side,  and  a  rather  pretty  woman 
on  the  other  too." 

"Nothing  is  unseen  in  this  town !  "  Dartrey  rejoined. 

Strolling  to  his  quarters  along  the  breezy  parade  at  night, 
he  proposed  to  himself,  that  he  would  breathe  an  immediate 
caution  to  Nesta.  How  had  she  come  to  know  this  Mis. 
Marsett?  But  he  was  more  seriously  thinking  of  what 
Colney  Durance  called  4  The  Mustard  Plaster ; '  the  satirist's 
phrase  for  warm  relations  with  a  married  fair  one :  and 
Dartrey,  clear  of  any  design  to  have  it  at  his  breast,  was 
beginning  to  take  intimations  of  pricks  and  burns.  They 
are  an  almost  positive  cure  of  inflammatory  internal  condi- 
tions. They  were  really  hard  on  him,  who  had  none  to  be 
cured. 

The  hour  was  nigh  midnight.  As  he  entered  his  hotel, 
the  porter  ran  off  to  the  desk  in  his  box,  and  brought  him  a 
note,  saying,  that  a  lady  had  left  it  at  half-past  nine. — Left 
it? — Then  the  lady  could  not  be  the  alarming  lady.  He  was 
relieved.  The  words  of  the  letter  were  cabalistic;  these, 
beneath  underlined  address: — 

"  I  beg  you  to  call  on  me,  if  I  do  not  see  you  this  evening. 
It  is  urgent ;  you  will  excuse  me  when  I  explain.  Not  late 
to-morrow.     1  am  sure  you  will  not  fail  to  come.     1  could 


THE    SQUIRES   IN   A    CONQUEROR'S    SERVICE.  295 

write  what  would  be  certain  to  bring  you.     I  dare  not  trust 
any  names  to  paper." 

The  signature  was,  Judith  Marsett. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

SHOWS    HOW    THE    SQUIRES    IN    A    CONQUEROR'S    SERVICE    HAVE    AT 
TIMES  TO   DO   KNiGHTLY   CONQUEST   OF   THEMSELVES. 

By  the  very  earliest  of  the  trains  shot  away  to  light  and 
briny  air  from  London's  November  gloom,  which  knows 
the  morning  through  increase  of  gasjets,  little  Skepsey  was 
hurried  over  suburban  chimneys,  in  his  friendly  third-class 
carriage;  where  we  have  reminders  of  ancient  pastoral  times 
peculiar  to  our  country,  as  it  may  chance  ;  but  where  a  man 
may  speak  to  his  neighbour  right  off  without  being  deemed 
offensive.  That  is  homely.  A  social  fellow  knitting  closely 
to  his  fellows  when  he  meets  them,  enjoys  it,  even  at  the 
cost  of  uncushioned  seats  :  he  can,  if  imps  are  in  him,  merry- 
andrew  as  much  as  he  pleases ;  detested  punctilio  does  not 
reign  there  ;  he  can  proselytize  for  the  soul's  welfare;  decry 
or  uphold  the  national  drink  ;  advertize  a  commercial  Firm 
deriving  prosperity  from  the  favour  of  the  multitude ;  exhort 
to  patriotism.  All  is  accepted.  Politeness  is  the  rule,  accord- 
ing to  Skepsey's  experience  of  the  Southern  part  of  the  third- 
class  kingdom.  And  it  is  as  well  to  mark  the  divis  ons, 
for  the  better  knowledge  of  our  countrymen.  The  North 
requires  volumes  to  itself. 

The  hard-grained  old  pirate-stock  Northward  has  built  the 
land,  and  is  to  the  front  when  we  are  at  our  epic  work. 
Meanwhile  it  gets  us  a  blowzy  character,  by  shouldering 
roughly  among  the  children  of  civilization.  Skepsey, 
journeying  one  late  afternoon  up  a  Kentish  line,  had,  in 
both  senses  of  the  word,  encountered  a  long-limbed  navvy ; 
an  intoxicated,  he  was  compelled  by  his  manly  modesty  to 
desire  to  think ;  whose  loathly  talk,  forced  upon  the  hearing 
of  a  decent  old  woman  opposite  him,  passed  baboonish  beha- 
viour ;  so  much  so,  that  Skepsey  civilly  intervened  ;  sub- 
sequently inviting  him  to  leave  the  carriage  and  receive  a 
lesson  at  the  station  they  were  nearing.    Upon  nis  promising 


296  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

faithfully,  that  it  should  be  a  true  and  telling  Wson,  the 
navvy  requested  this  pygmy  spark  to  flick  his  cheek,  merely 
to  show  he  meant  war  in  due  sincerity ;  and  he  as  faithfully, 
all  honour,  promising  not  to  let  it  bring  about  a  breakage 
of  the  laws  of  the  Company,  Skepsey  promptly  did  the  deed. 
So  they  went  forth. 

Skepsey  alluded  to  the  incident,  for  an  example  of  the 
lamentable  deficiency  in  science  betrayed  by  most  of  our 
strong  men  when  put  to  it ;  and  the  bitter  thought,  that  he 
could  counfc  well  nigh  to  a  certainty  on  the  total  absence  of 
science  in  the  long-armed  navvy,  whose  fist  on  his  nose 
might  have  been  as  the  magnet  of  a  pin,  was  chief  among 
his  reminiscences  after  the  bout,  destroying  pleasure  for  the 
lover  of  Old  England's  might.  One  blow  would  have  sent 
Skepsey  travelling.  He  was  not  seriously  struck  once.  They 
parted,  shaking  hands  ;  the  navvy  confessing  himself  to  have 
"  drunk  a  drop ; "  and  that  perhaps  accounted  for  his  having 
been  "  topped  by  a  dot  on  him."  He  declined  to  make  oath 
never  to  repeat  his  offence;  but  said,  sending  his  vanquisher 
to  the  deuce,  with  an  amicable  push  at  his  shoulder,  "Damned 
if  I  ever  forget  five  foot  five  stretched  six  foot  flat !"  Skepsey 
counted  his  feet  some  small  amount  higher;  but  our  he.rty 
rovers'  sons  have  their  ballad  moods  when  giving  or  taking 
a  thrashing.  One  of  the  third-class  passengers,  a  lad  of 
twenty,  became  Skepsey  s  pupil,  and  turned  out  clever  with 
the  gloves,  and  was  persuaded  to  enter  the  militia,  and  grew 
soon  to  be  a  corporal.  Thus  there  was  profit  of  the  affair, 
though  the  navvy  sank  out  of  sight.  Let  us  hope  and  pray 
he  will  not  insult  the  hearing  of  females  again.  If  only 
females  knew  how  necessa  y  it  is,  for  their  sakes,  to  be  able 
to  give  a  lesson  now  and  then  !  Ladies  are  positively  opposed. 
And  Judges  too,  who  dress  so  like  them.  The  manhood  of 
our  country  is  kept  down,  in  consequence.  Mr.  Durance 
was  right,  when  he  said  something  about  the  state  of  war 
being  wanted  to  weld  our  races  together :  and  yet  we  are 
always  praying  for  the  state  of  peace,  which  causes  cracks 
and  gaps  among  us  !  Was  that  what  he  meant  by  illogical? 
It  seemed  to  Skepsey — oddly,  considering  his  inferior  esti- 
mate of  the  value  of  the  fair  sex  — that  a  young  woman  with 
whom  he  had  recently  made  acquaintance ;  and  who  was 
in  Brighton  now,  upon  missionary  work  ;  a  member  of  the 
'  Army,'  an  officer  of  advanceing  rank,  Matilda  Tridden,  by 


THE    SQUIEES   IN  A   CONQUEROR'S   SERVICE.  297 

name;  was  nearer  to  the  secret  of  the  right  course  of  con- 
duct for  individual  citizens  and  the  entire  country  than  any 
gentleman  he  knew. 

Yes,  nearer  to  it  than  his  master  was  !  Thinking  of  Mr., 
Victor  Radnor,  Skepsey  fetched  a  sigh.  He  had  knocked  at 
his  master's  door  at  the  office  one  day,  and  imagining  the 
call  to  enter,  had  done  so,  and  had  seen  a  thing  he  could  not 
expunge.  Lady  Grace  Halley  was  there.  From  matters  he; 
gathered,  Skepsey  guessed  her  to  be  working  for  his  master 
among  the  great  folks,  as  he  did  with  Jarniman,  and  Mr. 
Fenellan  with  Mr.  Carling.  But  is  it  usual,  he  asked  him- 
self— his  natural  veneration  framing  the  rebuke  to  his  master 
thus — to  repay  the  services  of  a  lady  so  warmly? — We  have 
all  of  us  an  erminedowl  within  us  to  sit  in  judgement  of  our 
superiors  as  well  as  our  equals;  and  ^he  little  man,  notwith- 
standing a  servant's  bounden  submissiveness,  was  forced  to 
hear  the  judicial  pronouncement  upon  his  master's  behaviour. 
His  master  had,  at  the  same  time,  been  saying  most  weighty 
kind  words  more  and  more  of  late :  one  thing : — that,  if  he 
gave  all  he  had  to  his  fellows,  and  did  all  he  could,  he  should 
still  be  in  their  debt.  And  he  was  a  very  wealthy  gentle- 
man. What  are  we  to  think  ?  The  ways  of  our  superiors 
are  wonderful.  We  do  them  homage  :  still  we  feel,  we  pain- 
fully feel,  we  are  beginning  to  worship  elsewhere.  It  is  the 
pain  of  a  detachment  of  the  very  roots  of  our  sea- weed  heart 
from  a  rock.  Mr.  Victor  Radnor  was  an  honour  to  his 
country.  Skepsey  did  not  place  the  name  of  Matilda  Pridden 
beside  it  or  in  any  way  compare  two  such  entirely  different 
persons.  At  the  same  time  and  most  earnestly,  while  dread- 
ing to  hear,  he  desired  to  have  Matilda  Pridden's  opinion  of 
the  case  distressing  him.  He  never  could  hear  it,  because  he 
could  never  be  allowed  to  expound  the  case  to  her.  Skepsey 
sighed  again :  he  as  much  as  uttered :  Oh,  if  we  had  a  few 
thousands  like  her  ! — But  what  if  we  do  have  them?  They 
won't  marry  !  There  they  are,  all  that  the  country  requires 
in  wives  and  mothers ;  and  like  Miss  Priscilla  Graves,  they 
won't  marry  ! 

He  looked  through  sad  thoughts  across  the  benches  of  the 
compartments  to  the  farther  end  of  the  carriage,  where  sat 
the  Rev.  Septimus  Barmby,  looking  at  him  through  a  medi- 
tation as  obscure  if  not  so  mournful.  Few  are  the  third-class 
passengers  ouiward  at  that  early  hour  in  the  winter  season. 


298  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

and  Skepsey's  gymnastics  to  get  beside  the  Rev.  Septimus 
were  unimpeded;  though  a  tight-packed  carriage  of  us  poor 
journaliers  would  not  have  obstructed  them  with  as  much  as 
a  sneer.  Mr.  Barmby  and  Skepsey  greeted.  The  latter  s^aid, 
he  had  a  holiday,  to  pay  a  visit  to  Mi,-s  Nesta.  The  former 
said,  he  hoped  he  should  see  Miss  Nesta.  Skepsey  then 
rap'dly  brought  the  conversation  to  a  point  where  Matilda 
Pridden  was  comprised.  He  discoursed  of  the  'Army*  and 
her  position  in  the  Army,  giving  instances  of  her  bravery, 
the  devotion  shown  by  her  to  the  cause  of  morality,  in  all 
its  forms.  Mr.  Barmby  had  his  fortunes  in  his  hands  at  the 
moment,  he  could  not  lend  an  attentive  ear;  and  he  disliked 
this  Army,  the  title  it  had  taken,  and  the  mixing  of  women 
and  men  in  its  ranks ;  not  to  speak  of  a  presumption  in  its 
proceedings,  and  the  public  marching  and  singing.  More- 
over, he  enjoyed  his  one  or  two  permissible  glasses  :  he 
doubted  that  the  Chiefs  of  the  Army  had  common  benevo- 
lence for  the  inoffensive  pipe.  But  the  cause  of  morality 
was  precious  to  him ;  morality  and  a  fit  of  softness,  and  the 
union  of  the  happiest  contrast  of  voices,  had  set  him  for  a 
short  while,  before  the  dawn  of  Nesta' s  day,  hankering  after 
Priscilla  Graves.  Skepsey 's  narrative  of  Matilda  Pridden's 
work  down  at  the  East  of  London,  was  effective ;  it  had  the 
ring  to  thrill  a  responsive  chord  in  Mr.  Barmby,  who  mused 
on  London's  East,  and  martyrly  service  there.  His  present 
expectations  were  of  a  very  different  sort ;  but  a  beautiful 
bride,  bringing  us  wealth,  is  no  misleading  beam,  if  we 
direct  the  riches  rightly.  Septimus,  a  solitary  minister  in 
those  grisly  haunts  of  the  misery  breeding  vice,  must  needs 
accomplish  less  than  a  Septimus  the  husband  of  one  of 
England's  chief  heiresses : — only  not  the  most  brilliant, 
owing  to  circumstances  known  to  the  Rev.  Groseman  Butter- 
more  :  strangely,  and  opportunely,  revealed  :  for  her  exceed- 
ing benefit,  it  may  be  hoped.  She  is  no  longer  the  ignorant 
girl,  to  reject  the  protecting  hand  of  one  whose  cloth  is  the 
best  of  cloaking.  A  glance  at  Dudley  Sowerby's  defection, 
assures  our  worldly  wisdom  too,  that  now  is  the  time  to 
sue. 

Several  times  while  Mr.  Barmby  made  thus  his  pudding 
of  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  Skepsey's  tales  of 
Matilda  Pridden's  heroism  caught  his  attention.  He  liked 
her  deeds;   he  disliked  the  position  in  which  the  young 


THE    SQUIRES   IN   A   CONQUEROR'S   SERVICE  299 

woman  placed  herself  to  perform  them;  and  he  said  so. 
Women  are  to  be  women,  he  said. 

Skepsey  agreed:  "  If  we  could  get  men  to  do  the  work,  sir ! " 

Mr.  Barmby  was  launching  forth :  Plenty  of  men ! — His 
mouth  was  blocked  by  the  reflection,  that  we  count  the  men 
on  our  fingers ;  often  are  we,  as  it  were,  an  episcopal  thumb 
surveying  scarce  that  number  of  followers!  He  diverged 
to  censure  of  the  marchings  and  the  street-singing :  the 
impediment  to  traffic,  the  annoyance  to  a  finely  musical  ear. 
He  disapproved  altogether  of  Matilda  Pridden's  military 
display,  pronouncing  her  to  be,  "  Doubtless  a  worthy  young 
person." 

"Her  age  is  twenty-seven,"  said  Skepsey,  spying  at  the 
number  of  his  own. 

"You  have  known  her  long?"  Mr.  Barmby  asked. 

"Not  long,  sir.  She  has  gone  through  trouble.  She 
believes  very  strongly  in  the  will : — If  I  will  this,  if  I  will 
that,  and  it  is  the  right  will,  not  wickedness,  it  is  done — as 
good  as  done ;  and  force  is  quite  superfluous.  In  her  sermons, 
she  exhorts  to  prayer  before  action." 

"Preaches?" 

"  She  moves  a  large  assembly,  sir." 

•'  It  would  seem,  that  England  is  becoming  Americanized !" 
exclaimed  the  Conservative  in  Mr.  Barmby.  Almost  he 
groaned ;  and  his  gaze  was  fish-like  in  vacancy,  on  hearing 
the  little  man  speak  of  the  present  intrepid  forwardness  of 
the  sex  to  be  publicly  doing.  It  is  for  men  the  most 
indigestible  fact  of  our  century  :  one  that  by  contrast  throws 
an  overearthly  holiness  on  our  decorous  dutiful  mothers, 
who  contentedly  worked  below  the  surface  while  men 
unremittingly  attended  to  their  interests  above. 

Skepsey  drew  forth  a  paper-covered  shilling-book :  a 
translation  from  the  French,  under  a  yelling  title  of  savage 
hate  of  Old  England  and  cannibal  glee  at  her  doom.  Mr. 
Barmby  dropped  his  eyelashes  on  it,  without  comment;  nor 
did  he  reply  to  Skepsey's  forlorn  remark:  "We  let  them 
think  they  could  do  it ! " 

Behold  the  downs.  Breakfast  is  behind  them.  Miss 
Radnor  likewise  :  if  the  poor  child  has  a  name.  We  propose 
to  supply  the  deficiency.  She  does  not  declare  war  upon 
tobacco.  She  has  a  cultured  and  a  beautiful  voice.  We 
absiain  from  enlargeing  on  the  cnarms  of  her  person.     She 


800  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

has  resources,  which,  representatives  of  a  rival  creed  would 
plot  to  secure. 

"Skepsey,  you  have  your  quarters  at  the  house  of  Miss 
Radnor's  relatives?"  said  Mr.  Barmby,  as  they  emerged 
from  tunnelled  chalk.  "  Mention,  that  I  think  of  calling  in 
the  course  of  the  day." 

A  biscuit  had  been  their  breakfast  without  a  name.  They 
parted  at  the  station,  roused  by  the  smell  of  salt  to  bestow  a 
more  legitimate  title  on  the  day's  restorative  beginning. 
Down  the  hill,  along  by  the  shops,  and  Skepsey,  in  sight  of 
Miss  Nesta's  terrace,  considered  it  still  an  early  hour  for  a 
visitor ;  so,  to  have  the  sea  about  him,  he  paid  pier-money, 
and  hurried  against  the  briny  wings  of  a  South-wester ; 
green  waves,  curls  of  foam,  flecks  of  silver,  under  low-flying 
grey-dark  cloud-curtains  shaken  to  a  rift,  where  at  one  shot 
the  sun  had  a  line  of  Nereids  nodding,  laughing,  sparkling 
to  him.  Skepsey  enjoyed  it,  at  the  back  of  thoughts  military 
and  naval.  Visible  sea,  this  girdle  of  Britain,  inspired  him 
to  exultations  in  reverence.  He  wished  Mr.  Durance  could 
behold  it  now  and  have  such  a  breastful.  He  was  wishing 
he  knew  a  song  of  Britain  and  sea,  rather  fancying  Mr. 
Durance  to  be  in  some  way  a  bar  to  patriotic  poetical  recol- 
lection, when  he  saw  his  Captain  Dai  trey  mounting  steps 
out  of  an  iron  anatomy  of  the  pier,  and  looking  like  a  razor 
off  a  strap. 

44  Why,  sir ! "  cried  Skepsey. 

44  Just  a  plunge  and  a  dozen  strokes,"  Dartrey  said ;  "  and 
you'll  come  to  my  hotel  and  give  me  ten  minutes  of  the 
4  recreation  ; '  and  if  you  don't  come  willingly,  I  shall  insult 
your  country." 

44  Ah !  I  wish  Mr.  Durance  were  here,"  Skepsey  rejoined. 

44  It  would  upset  his  bumboat  of  epigrams.  He  rises  at 
ten  o'clock  to  a  queasy  breakfast  by  candlelight,  and  proceeds 
to  composition.  His  picture  of  the  country  is  a  portrait  of 
himself  by  the  artist." 

44  But,  sir,  Captain  Dartrey,  you  don't  think  as  Mr.  Durance 
does  of  England ! " 

44  There  are  lots  to  flatter  her,  Skepsey !  A  drilling  can't 
do  her  harm.  You're  down  to  see  Miss  Nesta.  Ladies  don't 
receive  quite  so  early.  And  have  you  breakfasted?  Come 
on  with  me  quick."  Dartrey  led  him  on,  saying :  44  You 
have  an  eye  at  my  stick.     It  was  a  legacy  to  me,  by  word  of 


UNIVERSITY 

THE    SQUIRES   IN   A   CONQUEROR'S    SERVICE.        ./801 

month,  from  a  seaman  of  a  ship  I  sailed  in,  who  thought  I 
had  dune  him  a  service;  and  he  died  after  all.  He  fell  over- 
board drunk.  He  perished  of  the  villain  stuff.  One  of  his 
messmates  handed  me  the  stick  in  Cape  Town,  sworn  to 
deliver  it.  A  good  knot  to  grasp ;  and  it's  flexible  and 
strong;  stick  or  rattan,  whichever  you  please ;  it  gives  point 
or  caress's  the  shoulder;  there's  no  break  in  it,  whack  as 
you  may.  They  call  it  a  Demerara  supple-jack.  I'll  leave 
it  to  you." 

Skepsey  declared  his  intention  to  be  the  first  to  depart. 
He  tried  the  temper  of  the  stick,  bent  it  a  bit,  and  admired 
the  prompt  straightening. 

•'  It  would  give  a  good  blow,  sir." 

"  Does  its  business  without  braining." 

Perhaps  for  the  reason,  that  it  was  not  a  handsome  instru- 
ment for  display  on  fashionable  promenades,  Dartrey  chose 
it  among  his  collection  by  preference;  as  ugly  dogs  of  a 
known  fidelity  are  chosen  for  companions.  The  Demerara 
supple-jack  surpasses  bull-dogs  in  its  fashion  of  assisting 
the  master;  for  when  once  at  it,  the  clownish-looking  thing 
reflects  upon  him  creditably,  by  developing  a  refined  courtli- 
ness of  style,  while  in  no  way  showing  a  diminution  of  jolly 
ardour  for  the  fray.  It  will  deal  you  the  stroke  of  a  bludgeon 
with  the  playfulness  of  a  cane.  It  bears  resemblance  to 
those  accomplished  natural  actors,  who  conversationally 
prtsent  a  dramatic  situation  in  two  or  three  spontaneous 
flourishes,  and  are  themselves  again,  men  of  the  world,  the 
next  minute. 

Skepsey  handed  it  back.  He  spoke  of  a  new  French  rifle. 
He  mentioned,  in  the  form  of  query  for  no  answer,  the 
translation  of  the  barking  little  volume  he  had  shown  to 
Mr.  Barmby :  he  slapped  at  his  breast-pocket,  where  it  was. 
Not  a  ship  was  on  the  sea-line;  and  he  seemed  to  deplore 
that  vacancy. 

M  But  it  tells  both  wavs,"  Dartrey  said.  "We  don't  want 
to  be  hectoring  in  the  Channel.  All  we  want,  is  to  be  sure 
of  our  power,  so  as  not  to  go  hunting  and  fawning  for 
alliances.  Up  along  that  terrace  Miss  Nesta  lives.  Brighton 
would  be  a  choice  place  for  a  landing." 

Skepsey  temporized,  to  get  his  national  defences,  by 
pleading  the  country's  love  of  peace. 

**  Then  you  give-up  your  portion  of  the  gains  of  war — an 


302  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

awful  disgorgement,"  eaid  Dartrey.  "If  you  are  really  for 
peace,  you  toss  all  your  spare  bones  to  the  war-dogs.  Other- 
wise, Quakerly  preaching  is  taken  for  hypocrisy." 

"I'm  afraid  we  are  illogical,  sir,"  said  Skepsey,  adopting 
one  of  the  charges  of  Mr.  Durance,  to  elude  the  abominable 
word. 

*•  In  you  run,  my  friend."  Dartrey  sped  him  up  the  steps 
of  the  hotel. 

A  little  note  lay  on  his  breakfast-table.  His  invalid 
ur.cle's  valet  gave  the  morning's  report  of  the  night. 

The  note  was  from  Mrs.  Blathenoy :  she  begged  Captain 
Dartrey,  in  double  under-linings  of  her  brief  words,  to  mount 
the  stairs.     He  debated,  and  he  went. 

She  was  excited,  and  showed  a  bosom  compressed  to 
explode :  she  had  been  weeping.  "  My  husband  is  off.  He 
bids  me  follow  him.     What  would  you  have  me  do?" 

"  Go  " 

"You  don't  care  what  may  happen  to  your  friends,  the 
Eadnors?" 

"  Not  at  the  cost  of  your  separation  from  your  husband." 

"  You  have  seen  him  1 " 

"  Be  serious." 

"  Oh,  you  cold  creature  !  You  know — you  see :  I  can't 
conceal.  And  you  tell  me  to  go.  '  Go ' !  Gracious  heavens ! 
I've  no  claim  on  you;  I  haven't  been  able  to  do  much;  I 
would  have — never  mind  !  believe  me  or  not.  And  now  I'm 
to  go :  on  the  spot,  I  suppose.  You've  seen  the  man  I'm  to 
go  to,  too.  I  would  bear  it,  if  it  were  not  away  from  .  .  . 
out  of  sight  of —  I'm  a  fool  of  a  woman,  I  know.  There's 
frankness  for  you !  and  I  could  declare  you're  saying 
'impudence'  in  your  heart — or  what  you  have  for  one. 
Have  you  one  ?  " 

"  My  dear  soul  it's  a  flint.  So  just  think  of  your  duty." 
Dartrey  played  the  horrid  part  of  executioner  with  some 
skill. 

Her  bosom  sprang  to  descend  into  abysses. 

"  And  never  a  greater  fool  than  when  I  sent  for  you  to  see 
such  a  face  as  I'm  showing ! "  she  cried,  with  lps  that 
twitched  and  fingers  that  plucked  at  her  belt.  "  But  you 
might  feel  my  hatred  of  being  tied  to — dragged  about  over 
the.  Continent  by  that  .  .  .  perhaps  you  think  a  woman  is 
not  sensible  of  vulgarity  in  her  husband  !     I'm   bothering 


THE    SQUIRES   IN   A   CONQUEROR'S   SERVICE.  803 

you?  I  don't  say  I  have  the  slightest  claim.  You  never 
made  love  to  me,  never  !  Never  so  much  as  pressed  my 
hand  or  looked.  Others  have — as  much  as  1  let  them.  And 
before  I  saw  you,  I  had  not  an  idea  of  another  man  but  that 
man.     So  you  advise  me  to  go  ?  " 

*'  There's  no  other  course." 

"No  other  course.  I  don't  see  one.  What  have  I  been 
dreaming  of!  Usually  a  woman  feeling  ..."  she  struck  at 
her  breast,  "  has  had  a  soft  word  in  her  ear.  *  Go ' !  I  don't 
blame  you,  Captain  Dartrey.  At  least,  you're  not  the  man 
to  punish  a  woman  for  stripping  herself,  as  I've  done.  I  call 
myself  a  fool — I'm  a  lunatic.     Trust  me  with  your  hand." 

"  There  you  are." 

She  grasped  the  hand,  and  shut  her  eyes  to  make  a  long 
age  of  the  holding  on  to  him.  "  Oh,  you  dear  dear  fellow  l-1- 
don't  think  me  unwomanly;  I  must  tell  you  now:  I  am 
naked  and  can't  disguise.  I  see  you  are  ice — feel :  and  if 
you  were  different,  I  might  be.  You  won't  be  hurt  by 
hearing  you've  made  yourself  dear  to  me — without  meaning 
to,  I  know !  It  began  that  day  at  Lakelands ;  I  fell  in  love  with 
you  the  very  first  minute  I  set  eyes  on  you !  There's  a 
confession  for  a  woman  to  make ! — and  a  married  woman  ! 
I'm  married,  and  I  no  more  feel  allegiance,  as  they  call  it, 
than  if  there  never  had  been  a  ceremony  and  no  Jacob 
Blathenoy  was  in  existence.  And  why  I  should  go  to  him  ! 
— But  you  shan't  be  troubled.  I  did  not  begin  to  live,  as  a 
woman,  before  I  met  you.  I  can  speak  all  this  to  you  because 
— we  women  can't  be  deceived  in  that — you  are  one  of  the 
men  who  can  b-*  counted  on  for  a  friend." 

"I  hope  so,"  Dartrey  said,  and  his  mouth  hardened  as 
nature's  electricity  shot  spaiks  into  him  from  the  touch  and 
rocked  him. 

"  No,  not  yet :  I  will  soon  let  it  drop,"  said  she,  and  she 
was  just  then  thrillingly  pretty;  she  caressed  the  hand,  placing 
it  at  her  throat  and  moving  her  chin  on  it,  as  women  londle 
birds.     "  I  am  positively  to  go,  then  ?  " 

"  Positively,  you  are  to  go ;  and  it's  my  command.* 

*  Not  in  love  with  anyone  at  all  ?  , 

*'  Not  with  a  soul." 

"  Not  with  a  woman  ?  H 

"  With  no  woman." 

"  Nor  maid  ?  " 


304  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

'*  No !  and  no  to  everything.  And  an  end  to  the 
catechism  !  " 

"  It  is  really  a  flint  that  beats  here  ?"  she  said,  and  with 
a  shyness  in  adventurousness,  she  struck  the  point  of  her 
forefinger  on  the  rib.  "  Fancy  me  in  love  with  a  flint !  And 
running  to  be  dutiful  to  a  Jacob  Blathenoy,  at  my  flint's 
command.  I'm  half  in  love  with  doing  what  I  hate,  because 
this  cold  thing  here  bids  me  do  it.  I  believe  I  married  for 
money,  and  now  it  looks  as  if  I  were  to  have  my  bargain 
with  poverty  to  bless  it." 

"  There  I  may  help,"  said  Dartrey,  relieved  at  sight  of  a 
loophole,  to  spring  to  some  initiative  out  of  the  paralysis 
cast  on  him  by  a  pretty  little  woman's  rending  of  her  veil. 
A  man  of  honour  alone  with  a  woman  who  has  tossed  con- 
cealment to  the  winds,  is  a  riddled  target  indeed:  he  is 
tempted  to  the  peril  of  cajoling,  that  he  may  escape  from  the 
torment  and  the  ridicule;  he  is  tempted  to  sigh  for  the 
gallant  spirit  of  his  naughty  adolescence.  "  Come  to  me — 
will  you  ? — apply  to  me,  if  there's  ever  any  need.  I  happen 
to  have  money.     And  forgive  me  for  naming  it." 

She  groaned :  "  Don't !  I'm  sure,  and  I  thought  it  from 
the  first,  you're  one  of  the  good  men,  and  the  woman  who 
meets  you  is  lucky,  and  wretched,  and  so  she  ought  to  be ! 
Only  to  you  should  I !  ...  do  believe  that !  I  won't  speak 
of  what  excuses  I've  got.     You've  seen." 

"  Don't  think  of  them  :  there'll  be  danger  in  it." 

"  Shall  you  think  of  me  in  danger  ?  " 

"  Silly,  silly  !  Don't  you  see  you  have  to  do  with  a  flint ! 
I've  gone  through  fire.  And  if  I  were  in  love  with  you,  I 
should  start  you  off  to  your  husband  this  blessed  day." 

"  And  you're  not  the  slightest  wee  wee  bit  in  love  with 
me!" 

"  Perfectly  true ;  but  I  like  jou  ;  and  if  we're  to  be  hand 
in  hand,  in  the  time  to-come,  you  must  walk  firm  at  present." 

"  I'm  to  go  to-day  ?  " 

"  You  are." 

"  Without  .  .  .  one  ?     I  dare  say  we  shan't  meet  again." 

The  riddled  target  kicked.  Dartrey  contrasted  Jacob 
Blathenoy  with  the  fair  wife,  and  commiseratingly  exonerated 
her;  he  lashed  at  himself  for  continuing  to  be  in  this 
absurdest  of  postures,  and  not  absolutely  secure  for  all  that. 
His  head  shook.     "  Friends,  you'll  find  best." 


THE   SQUIEES  IN  A  CONQUEROR'S   SERVICE.  805 

"  Well !  "  she  sighed,  "  I  feel  I'm  doomed  to  go  famished 
through  life.  There's  never  to  be  such  a  thing  as  love,  for 
me  !  I  can't  tell  you — no  woman  could :  though  you'll  say 
I've  told  enough.  I  shall  burn  with  shame  when  I  think  of 
it.  I  could  go  on  my  knees  to  have  your  arms  round  me 
once.  I  could  kill  myself  for  saying  it ! — I  should  feel  that  I 
had  one  moment  of  real  life. — I  know  I  ought  to  admire  you.  . 
They  say  a  woman  hates  if  she's  refused.  1  can't :  I  wish  I 
were  able  to.  I  could  have  helped  the  Eadnors  better  by 
staying  here  and  threatening  never  to  go  to  him  unless  he 
swore  not  to  do  them  injury.  He's  revengeful.  Just  as  you 
like.  You  say  'Go/  and  I  go.  There.  I  may  kiss  your 
hand  ?  " 

"  Give  me  yours." 

Dartrey  kissed  the  hand.  She  kissed  the  mark  of  his  lips. 
He  got  himself  away,  by  promising  to  see  her  to  the  train 
for  Paris.  Outside  her  door,  he  was  met  by  the  reflection, 
coming  as  a  thing  external,  that  he  might  veraciously  and 
successfully  have  pleaded  a  passionate  hunger  for  breakfast : 
nay,  that  he  would  have  done  so,  if  he  had  been  down  light 
in  earnest.  For  she  had  the  prettiness  to  cast  a  spell ;  a 
certain  curve  at  the  lips,  a  fluttering  droop  of  the  eyelids,  a,/ 
corner  of  the  eye,  that  led  long* distances  away  to  forests  and' 
nests.  This  little  woman  had  the  rosy-peeping  June  bud's ' 
plumpness.  What  of  the  man  who  refused  to  kiss  her  once  ? 
Cold  antecedent  immersion  had  to  be  thanked;  and  strin- 
gent vacuity  ;  perhaps  a  spotting  ogre-image  of  her  possessor. 
Some  sense  of  right-doing  also,  we  hope.  Dartrey  angrily 
attributed  his  good  conduct  to  the  lowest  motives.  Be  went 
so  far  as  to  accuse  himself  of  having  forborne  to  speak  of 
breakfast,  from  a  sort  of  fascinated  respect  for  the  pitch  of 
a  situation  that  he  despised  and  detested.  Then  again,  when 
beginning  to  eat,  his  good  conduct  drew  on  him  a  chorus  of 
the  jeers  of  all  the  martial  comrades  he  had  known.  But  he 
owned  he  would  have  had  less  excuse  than  they,  had  he 
taken  advantage  of  a  woman's  inability,  at  a  weak  moment, 
to  protect  herself:  or  rather,  if  he  had  not  behaved  in  a 
manner  to  protect  her  from  herself.  He  thought  of  his 
buried  wife,  and  the  noble  in  the  base  of  that  poor  soul; 
needing  constantly  a  present  helper,  for  the  nobler  to 
conquer.  Be  true  man  with  a  woman,  she  must  be  viler 
than  the  devil  has  yet  made  one,  if  she  does  not  follow  a 


806  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

strong  right  lead: — but  be  patient,  of  course.  And  the 
word  patience  here  means  more  than  most  men  contain. 
Certainly  a  man  like  Jacob  Blathenoy  was  a  mouthful  for 
any  woman  :  and  he  had  bought  his  wife,  he  deserved  no 
pity.  Not  ?  Probably  not.  That  view,  however,  is  unwhole- 
some and  opens  on  slides.  Pity  of  his  wife,  too,  gets  to  be 
fervidly  active  with  her  portrait,  fetches  her  breath  about 
us,  As  for  condemnation  of  the  poor  little  woman,  her  case 
was  not  unexampled,  though  the  sudden  flare  of  it  startled 
rather.  Mrs.  Victor  could  read  men  and  women  closely. 
Yes,  and  Victor,  when  he  schemed — but  Dartrey  declined  to 
be  throwing  blame  right  or  left.  More  than  by  his  breakfast, 
and  in  a  preferable  direction,  he  was  refreshed  by  Skepsey's 
narrative  of  the  deeds  of  Matilda  Pridden. 

"  The  right  sort  of  girl  for  you  to  know,  Skepsey,"  he  said. 
"  The  best  in  life  is  a  good  woman." 
^-Skepsey  exhibited  his  book  of  the  Gallic  howl. 

f  "  They  have  their  fits  now  and  then,  and  they're  soon  over 

j  and  forgotten,"  Dartrey  said.     "  The  worst  of  it  is,  that  we 

I  remember." 

^  After  the  morning's  visit  to  his  uncle,  he  peere/i  at  half  a 
dozen  sticks  in  the  corner  of  the  room,  grasped  their  handles, 
and  selected  the  Demerara  supple-jack,  for  no  particular 
reason;  the  curved  knot  was  easy  to  the  grasp.  It  was  in 
his  mind,  that  this  person  signing  herself  Judith  Marsett, 
mi^ht  have  something  to  say,  which  intimately  concerned 
Nesta.  He  fell  to  brooding  on  it,  until  he  wondered  why 
lie  had  not  been  made  a  trifle  anxious  by  the  reading  of  the 
note  overnight.     Skepsey  was  left  at  Nesta's  house. 

Dartrey  found  himself  expected  by  the   servant  waiting 
on  Mrs.  Marsett. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

SHOWS   HOW   TEMPER   MAY   KINDLE   TEMPER   AND   AN   INDIGNANT 
WOMAN   GET   HER   WEAPON. 

Judith  Marsett  stood  in  her  room  to  receive  Nesta's  hero. 
She  was  flushed,  and  had  thinned  her  lips  for  utterance  of  a 
desperate  thing,  after  the  first  severe  formalities. 

Her  aim  was  to  preserve  an  impressive  decorum.    She  was 


HOW    TEMPER   MAY   KINDLE    TEMPER.  807 

at  the  same  time  burning  to  speak  out  furious  wrath,  in 
words  of  savage  rawness,  if  they  should  come,  as  a  manner 
of  slapping  the  world's  cheek  for  the  state  to  which  it 
reduces  its  women ;  whom  one  of  the  superior  creatures  can 
insult,  and  laugh. 

Men  complaining  of  the  ■  peace  which  is  near  their 
extinction,'  have  but  to  shuffle  with  the  sex;  they  will 
experience  as  remarkable  a  change  as  if  they  had  passed  off 
land  on  to  sea. 

Dartrey  had  some  flitting  notion  of  the  untamed  original 
elements  women  can  bring  about  us,  in  his  short  observant 
bow  to  Mrs.  Marsett,  following  so  closely  upon  the  scene 
with  Mrs.  Blathenoy. 

But  this  handsome  woman's  look  of  the  dull  red  line  of  a 
sombre  fire,  that  needed  only  stir  of  a  breath  to  shoot  the 
blaze,  did  not  at  all  alarm  him.  He  felt  refreshingly  strung 
by  it. 

She  was  discerned  at  a  glance  to  be  an  aristocratic  member 
of  regions  where  the  senses  perpetually  simmer  when  they 
are  not  boiling.  The  talk  at  the  Club  recurred  to  him.  How 
could  Nesta  have  come  to  know  the  woman  ?  His  question- 
ing of  the  chapter  of  marvellous  accidents,  touched  Nesta 
simply,  as  a  young  girl  to  be  protected,  without  abhorrently 
involving  the  woman.  He  had  his  ideas  of  the  Spirit  of 
Woman  stating  her  case  to  the  One  Judge,  for  lack  of  an 
earthly  just  one  :  a  story  different  from  that  which  is  pro- 
claimed pestilential  by  the  body  of  censors  under  conservatory 
glass ;  where  flesh  is  delicately  nurtured,  highly  prized ; 
spirit  not  so  much  so ;  and  where  the  pretty  tricking  of  the 
flesh  is  taken  for  a  spiritual  ascendancy. 

In  spite  of  her  turbulent  breast's  burden  to  deliver,  Mrs. 
Marsett's  feminine  acuteness  was  alive  upon  Dartrey,  con- 
firming here  and  there  Nesta's  praises  of  him.  She  liked 
his  build  and  easy  carriage  of  a  muscular  frame :  her  Ned 
was  a  heavy  man.  More  thanDartrey's  figure,  as  she  would 
have  said,  though  the  estimate  came  second,  she  liked  his 
manner  with  her.  Not  a  doubt  was  there,  that  he  read  her 
position.  She  could  impose  upon  some :  not  upon  masculine 
eyes  like  these.  They  did  not  scrutinize,  nor  ruffle  a  smooth 
surface  with  a  snap  at  petty  impressions  ;  and  they  were  not 
cynically  intimate  or  dominating  or  tentatively  amorous  : 
clear  good  fellowship  was  in  them.     And  it  was  a  blessed- 


308  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS, 

ness  (whatever  might  be  her  feeling  later,  when  she  came 
to  thank  him  at  heart)  to  be  in  the  presence  of  a  man  whose 
appearance  breathed  of  offering  her  common  ground,  whereon 
to  meet  and  speak  together,  unburdened  by  the  hunting  world, 
and  by  the  stoneing  world.  Snch  common  ground  seems  a 
kind  of  celestial  to  the  better  order  of  those  excluded  from  it. 

Dartrey  relieved  her  midway  in  a  rigid  practise  of  the 
formalities  :  "  I  think  I  may  guess  that  you  have  something 
to  tell  me  relating  to  Miss  Radnor?  " 

"It  is."  Mrs.  Marsett  gathered  up  for  an  immediate 
plunge,  and  deferred  it.  "I  met  her — we  went  out  with 
the  riding-master.  She  took  to  me.  I  like  her — I  could 
say  "  (the  woman's  voice  dropped  dead  low,  in  a  tremble), 
"I  love  her.  She  is  young: — I  could  kneel  to  her.  Do 
you  know  a  Major  Worrell  ?  " 

"Worrell?  no." 

"  He  is  a — calls  himself  a  friend  of  my — of  Captain  Mar- 
sett's.     He  met  us  out  one  day." 

*'He  permitted  himself  to  speak  to  Miss  Radnor?  " 

She  rejoiced  in  Dartrey's  look.  "Not  then.  First  let 
me  tell  you.  I  can  hardly  tell  you.  But  Miss  Radnor  tells 
me  you  are  not  like  other  men.  You  have  made  your  con- 
clusions already.  Are  you  asking  what  right  I  had  to  be 
knowing  her?  It  is  her  goodness.  Accident  began  it;  I 
did  not  deceive  her;  as  soon  as  ever  I  could  I — I  have 
Captain  Marsett's  promise  to  me :  at  present  he's  situated, 
he — but  I  opened  my  heart  to  her:  as  much  as  a  woman 
can.     It  came  !     Did  I  do  very  wrong?  " 

"  I'm  not  here  to  decide  :  continue,  pray." 

Mrs.  Marsett  aimed  at  formal  speech,  and  was  driving 
upon  her  natural  in  anger.  "  I  swear  1  did  it  for  the  best. 
She  is  an  innocent  girl  .  .  .  young  lady :  only  she  has  a 
head ;  she  soon  reads  things.  I  saw  the  kind  of  cloud  in 
her.  I  spoke.  I  felt  bound  to  :  she  said  she  would  not 
forsake  me. — I  was  bound  to  !  And  it  was  enough  to  break 
my  heart,  to  think  of  her  despising  me.  No,  she  forgave, 
pitied ;  she  was  kind.  Those  are  the  angels  who  cause  us 
to  think  of  changeing.  I  don't  care  for  sermons,  but  when 
I  meet  charity : — I  won't  bore  you !  " 

*  You  don't." 

"My  .  .  .  Captain  Marsett  can't  bear — he  calls  it  Psal- 
mody.    He  thinks  things  ought  always  to  be  as  they  are, 


HOW   TEMPER   MAY   KINDLE    TEMPER.  309 

with  women  and  men  ;  and  women  preachers  he  does  detest. 
She  is  not  one  to  preach.  You  are  waiting  to  hear  what 
I  have  to  tell.  That  man  Major  Worrell  has  tried  to  rob 
me  of  everything  I  ever  had  to  set  a  value  on  : — love,  I'd 
ea^  ; — he  laughs  at  a  woman  like  me  loving." 

Dartrey  nodded,  to  signify  a  known  sort  of  fellow. 

"  She  came  here."  Mrs.  Marsett's  tears  had  risen.  "  I 
ought  not  to  have  let  her  come.  I  invited  her — for  once : 
I  am  lonely.  None  of  my  sex — none  I  could  respect !  I 
meant  it  for  only  once.  She  promised  to  sing  to  me.  And, 
Oh !  how  she  sings !  You  have  heard  her.  My  whole 
heart  came  out.  I  declare  I  believe  girls  exist  who  can 
hear  our  way  of  life — and  I'm  not  so  bad  except  compared 
with  that  angel,  who  heard  me,  and  was  and  is,  I  could  take 
oath,  no  worse  for  it.  Some  girls  can ;  she  is  one.  I  am 
all  for  bringing  them  up  in  complete  innocence.  If  I  was 
a  great  lady,  my  daughters  should  never  know  anything  of 
the  world  until  they  were  married.  But  Miss  Kadnor  is 
a  young  lady  who  cannot  be  hurt.  She  is  above  us.  Oh ! 
what  a  treasure  for  a  man  ! — and  my  God  !  for  any  man  born 
of  woman  to  insult  a  saint,  as  she  is ! — He  is  a  beast !  " 

"Major  Worrell  met  her  here ?  " 

"  Blame  me  as  much  as  you  like :  I  do  myself.  Half  my 
rage  with  him  is  at  myself  for  putting  her  in  the  way  of 
such  a  beast  to  annoy.  Each  time  she  came,  I  said  it  was 
to  be  the  last.  I  let  her  see  what  a  mercy  from  heaven  she 
was  to  me.  She  would  come.  It  has  not  been  many  times. 
She  wishes  me  either  to  .  .  .  Captain  Marsett  has  promised. 
And  nothing  seems  hard  to  me  when  my  own  God's  ange?. 
is  by.  She  is !  I'm  not  such  a  bad  woman,  but  I  never 
before  I  knew  her  knew  the  meaning  of  the  word  virtue. 
There  is  the  young  lady  that  man  worried  with  his  insulting 
remarks!  though  he  must  have  known  she  was  a  lady:  — 
because  he  found  her  in  my  rooms." 

"  You  were  present  when,  as  you  say,  he  insulted  her  ?  " 

"I  was.  Here  it  commenced;  and  he  would  see  her 
downstairs." 

"You  heard?" 

"Of  course,  I  never  left  her." 

"  Give  me  a  notion  .  .  ." 

"  To  get  her  to  make  an  appointment :  to  let  him  conduct 
her  iiouie." 


810  ONE   OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

"She  was  alone?" 

"Her  maid  was  below." 

"  And  this  happened  .  .  .  ?  " 

"Yesterday,  after  dark.  My  Ned — Captain  Marsett 
encourages  him  to  be  familiar.  I  should  be  the  lowest  of 
women  if  I  feared  the  threats  of  such  a  reptile  of  a  man. 
I  could  tell  you  more.  I  can't  always  refuse  his  visits, 
though  if  Ned  knew  the  cur  he  is  !  Captain  Marsett  is  easy- 
going." 

"  I  should  like  to  know  where  he  lives." 

She  went  straight  to  the  mantelpiece,  and  faced  about 
with  a  card,  handing  it,  quite  aware  that  it  was  a  charge  of 
powder. 

Desperate  things  to  be  done  excused  the  desperate  said ; 
and  especially  they  seemed  a  cover  to  the  bald  and  often 
spotty  language  leaping  out  of  her,  against  her  better  taste, 
when  her  temper  was  up. 

"Somewheie  not  veiy  distant,"  said' Dartrey,  perusing. 
"  Is  he  in  the  town  to-day,  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  I  am  not  sure ;  he  may  be.     Her  name  .  .  ." 

"  Have  no  fear.     Ladies'  names  are  safe." 

"  I  am  anxious  that  she  may  not  be  insulted  again." 

"  Did  she  show  herself  conscious  of  it  ?  " 

"  She  stopped  speaking  :  she  looked  at  the  door.  She  may 
come  again — or  never  !  through  that  man  1  " 

"  You  receive  him,  at  his  pleasure  ?  " 

M  Captain  Marsett  wishes  me  to.  He  is  on  his  way  home. 
He  calls  Major  Worrell  my  pet  spite.  All  I  want  is,  not  to 
hear  of  the  man.  I  swear  he  came  yesterday  on  the  chance 
of  seeing — for  he  forced  his  way  up  past  my  servant ;  he 
must  have  seen  Miss  Eadnor's  maid  below." 

"  You  don't  mean,  that  he  insulted  her  hearing?  " 

*'  Oh  !  Captain  Fenellan,  you  know  the  style." 

"  Well,  I  thank  you,"  Dartrey  said.  The  young  lady  is 
the  daughter  of  my  dearest  friends.  She's  one  of  the  precious 
— you're  quite  right.     Keep  the  tears  back." 

44 1  will."  .  She  heaved  open-mouthed  to  get  physical 
control  of  the  tide.  "  When  you  say  that  of  her  ! — how  can 
1  help  it  ?  It's  I  fear,  because  I  fear  .  .  .  and  I've  no  right 
to  expect  ever  .  .  .  but  if  I'm  never  again  to  look  on  that 
dear  face,  tell  her  I  shall — I  shall  pray  for  her  in  my  grave. 
Tell  her  she  has  done  all  a  woman  can,  an  angel  can,  to  save 


HOW    TEMPER    MAY    KINDLE    TEMPER.  311 

my  soul.  I  speak  truth  :  my  very  soul !  I  could  never  go 
to  the  utter  bad  after  knowing  her.  I  don't — you  know  the 
world — I'm  a  poor  helpless  woman  ! — don't  swear  to  give 
up  my  Ned  if  he  does  break  the  word  he  promised  once; 
I  can't  see  how  I  could.  I  haven't  her  courage.  I  haven't 
- — what  it  is! — You  know  her:  it's  in  her  eyes  and  her 
voice.  If  I  had  her  beside  me,  then  1  could  starve  or  go  to 
execution — I  could,  I  am  certain.  Here  I  am,  going  to  do 
what  you  men  hate.     Let  me  sit." 

"  Here's  a  chair,"  said  Dartrey.  "  I've  no  time  to  spare  ; 
good  day,  for  the  present.     You  will  permit  me  to  call." 

"  Oh  !  come  ;  "  she  cried,  out  of  her  sobs,  for  excuse.  They 
were  genuine,  or  she  would  better  have  been  able  to  second 
her  efforts  to  catch  a  distinct  vision  of  his  retreating  figure. 

She  beheld  him,  when  he  was  in  the  street,  turn  for  the 
district  where  Major  Worrell  had  his  lodgemgs.  That  set 
her  mind  moving,  and  her  tears  fell  no  longer. 

Major  Worrell  was  not  at  home.  Dartrey  was  informed, 
that  he  might  be  at  his  Club. 

At  the  Club  he  heard  of  the  major  as  having  gone  to 
London  and  being  expected  down  in  the  afternoon.  Colonel 
Sudley  named  the  train :  an  early  train ;  the  major  was 
engaged  to  dine  at  the  Club.  Dartrey  had  information 
supplied  to  him  concerning  Major  Worrell  and  Captain 
Marsett,  also  Mrs.  Marsett.  She  had  a  history.  Worthy 
citizens  read  the  description  of  history  with  interest  when 
the  halo  of  Royalty  is  round  it.  They  may,  if  their  reading 
extends,  perceive,  that  it  has  been  the  main  turbid  stream 
in  old  Mammon's  train  since  he  threw  his  bait  for  flesh. 
They  might  ask,  too,  whether  it  is  likely  to  cease  to  flow 
while  he  remains  potent.  The  lady's  history  was  brief,  and 
bore  recital  in  a  Club ;  came  off  quite  honourably  there. 
Regarding  Major  Worrell,  the  tale  of  him  showed  him  to 
have  a  pass  among  men.  He  managed  cleverly  to  get  his 
pleasures  out  of  a  small  income  and  a  'fund  of  anecdote.' 
His  reputation  indicated  an  anecdotistof  the  table,  prevailing 
in  the  primitive  societies,  where  the  art  of  conversing  does 
not  come  by  nature,  and  is  exercised  in  monosyllabic  under- 
tones or  grunts  until  the  narrator's  well-masticated  popular 
anecdote  loosens  a  digestive  laughter,  and  some  talk  ensues. 
He  was  Marsett's  friend,  and  he  boasted  of  not  letting  Ned 
Marsett  make  a  fool  of  himself. 


312  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

Dartrey  was  not  long  in  shaping  the  man's  character: 
Worrell  belonged  to  the  male  birds  of  upper  air,  who  mangle 
what  female  prey  they  are  forbidden  to  devour.  And  he 
had  Miss  Radnor's  name :  he  had  spoken  her  name  at  the 
Club  overnight.  He  had  roused  a  sensation,  because  of  a 
man  being  present,  Percy  Southweare,  who  was  related  to 
a  man  as  good  as  engaged  to  marry  her.  The  major  never 
fell  into  a  quarrel  with  sons  of  nobles,  if  he  could  help  it, 
or  there  might  have  been  a  pretty  one. 

So  Colonel  Sudley  said. 

Dartrey  spoke  musing :  M  I  don't  know  how  he  may  class 
me;  I  have  an  account  to  square  with  him." 

"  It  won't  do  in  the>e  days,  my  good,  friend.  Come  and 
cool  yourself;  and  we'll  lunch  here.     I  shan't  leave  you  " 

"By  all  means.  We'll  lunch,  and  walk  up  to  the  station, 
and  you  will  point  him  out  to  me." 

Dartrey  stated  Major  Worrell's  offence.  The  colonel  was 
not  astonished;  but  evidently  he  thought  less  of  Worrel's 
behaviour  to  Miss  Radnor  in  Mrs.  Marsett's  presence  than 
of  the  mention  of  her  name  at  the  Clu  b  :  and  that,  he  seemed 
to  think,  had  a  shade  of  excuse  against  the  charge  of 
monstrous.  He  blamed  the  young  lady  who  could  go  twice 
to  visit  a  Mrs.  Mai  sett ;  partly  exposed  a  suspicion  of  her. 
Dartrey  let  him  talk.  They  strolled  along  the  parade,  and 
were  near  the  pier. 

Suddenly  saying:  "There,  beside  our  friend  in  clerical 
garb:  here  she  comes;  judge  if  that  is  the  girl  for  the 
foulest  of  curs  to  worry,  no  matter  where  she's  found," 
Dai  trey  directed  the  colonel's  attention  to  Nesta  and  Mr. 
Barmby  turning  off  the  pier  and  advancing. 

He  saluted.  She  bowed.  There  was  no  contraction  of 
her  eyelids ;  and  her  face  was  white.  The  mortal  life 
appeared  to  be  deadened  in  her  cold  wide  look  ;  as  when  the 
storm- wind  banks  a  leaden  remoteness,  leaving  blown  space 
of  sky. 

The  colonel  said  :  "  No,  that's  not  the  girl  a  gentleman 
would  offend." 

"  What  man  !  "  cried  Dartrey.  "If  we  had  a  Society  for 
the  trial  of  your  gentleman  ! — but  he  has  only  to  call  himself 
gentleman  to  get  grant  of  licence  :  and  your  Society  protects 
him.  It  won't  punish,  and  it  won't  let  you.  But  you  saw 
her :  ask  yourself — what  man  could  offend  that  girl! " 


HOW   TEMPER   MAY   KINDLE    TEMPER.  813 

•*  Still,  my  friend,  she  ought  to  keep  clear  of  the  Marsetts." 

"  When  I  meet  him,  I  shall  treat  him  as  one  out  of  the 
law." 

"  You  lead  on  to  an  ultimate  argument  with  the  hangman." 

"  We'll  dare  it,  to  waken  the  old  country.  Old  England 
will  count  none  but  Worrells  in  time.  As  for  discreet,  if 
you  like ! — the  young  lady  might  have  been  more  discreet. 
She's  a  girl  with  a  big  heart.  If  we  were  all  everlastingly 
discreet ! " 

Dartrey  may  have  meant,  that  the  consequence  of  a 
prolonged  conformity  would  be  the  generation  of  stenches 
to  shock  to  purgeing  tempests  the  tolerant  heavens  over 
such  smooth  stagnancy.  He  had  his  ideas  about  movement ; 
about  the  good  of  women,  and  the  health  of  his  England. 
The  feeling  of  the  hopelessness  of  pleading  Nesta's  conduct, 
for  the  perfect  justification  of  it  to  son  or  daughter  of  our 
impressing  conventional  world — even  to  a  friend,  that  friend 
a  true  man,  a  really  chivalrous  man ! — drove  him  back  in  a 
silence  upon  his  natural  brotherhood  with  souls  that  dare  do. 
It  was  a  wonder,  to  think  of  his  finding  this  kinship  in  a 
woman.  In  a  girl? — and  the  world  holding  that  virgin 
spirit  to  be  unclean  or  shadowed  because  its  rays  were  shed 
on  foul  places?  He  clasped  the  girl.  Her  smitten  clear 
face,  the  face  of  the  second  sigh  after  torture,  bent  him  in 
devotion  to  her  image. 

The  clasping  and  the  worshipping  were  independent  of 
personal  ardours:  quaintly  mixed  with  semi-paternal  recol- 
lections of  the  little  'blue  butterfly'  of  the  days  at  Craye 
Farm  and  Creckholt ;  and  he  had  heard  of  Dudley  Sowerby's 
pretensions  to  her  hand.  Nesta's  youthfulness  cast  double 
age  on  him  from  the  child's  past.  He  pictured  the  child ; 
pictured  the  girl,  with  her  look  of  solitariness  of  sight ;  as 
in  the  desolate  wide  world,  where  her  noble  compassion  for 
a  woman  had  unexpectedly,  painfully,  almost  by  transub- 
stantiation,  rack-screwed  her  to  woman's  mind.  And  above 
sorrowful,  holy  were  those  eyes. 

They  held  sway  over  Dartrey,  and  lost  it  some  steps  on ; 
his  demon  temper  urgeing  him  to  strike  at  Major  Worrell, 
as  the  cause  of  her  dismayed  expression.  He  was  not  the 
happier  for  dropping  to  his  nature  ;  but  we  proceed  more 
easily,  all  of  us,  when  the  strain  which  lilts  us  a  foot  or  two 
off  our  native  level  is  relaxed. 


314  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

A  PAIR   OF   WOOERS. 

That  ashen  look  of  the  rise  out  of  death  from  one  of  our 
mortal  wounds,  was  caused  by  deeper  convulsions  in  Nesta's 
bosom  than  Dartrey  could  imagine. 

She  had  gone  for  the  walk  with  Mr.  Barmby,  reading  the 
omen  of  his  tones  in  the  request.  Dorothea  and  Virginia 
would  have  her  go.  The  clerical  gentleman,  a  friend  of  the 
Eev.  Abram  Posterley ;  and  one  who  deplored  poor  Mr. 
Posterley's  infatuation ;  and  one  besides  who  belonged  to 
Nesta's  musical  choir  in  London ;  seemed  a  safe  companion 
for  the  child.  The  grand  organ  of  Mr.  Barmby's  voice,  too, 
assured  them  of  a  devout  seriousness  in  him,  that  arrested 
any  scrupulous  little  questions.  They  could  not  conceive 
hi>  uttering  the  nonsensical  empty  stuff,  compliments  to 
their  beauty  and  what  not,  which  girls  hear  sometimes  from 
inconsiderate  gentlemen,  to  the  having  of  their  heads  turned. 
Moreover,  Nesta  had  rashly  promised  her  father's  faithful 
servant  Skepsey  to  walk  out  with  him  in  the  afternoon ;  and 
the  ladies  hoped  she  would  find  the  morning's  walk  to  have 
been  enough ;  good  little  man  though  Skepsey  was,  they 
were  sure.  But  there  is  the  incongruous  for  young  women 
of  station  on  a  promenade. 

Mr.  Barmby  headed  to  the  pier.  After  pacing  up  and 
down  between  the  briny  gulls  and  a  polka-band,  he  made 
his  way  forethoughtfully  to  the  glass-sheltered  seats  fronting 
East :  where,  as  his  enthusiasm  for  the  solemnity  of  the 
occasion  excited  him  to  say,  "We  have  a  view  of  the  terraces 
and  the  cliffs ; "  and  where  not  more  than  two  enwrapped 
invalid  figures  were  ensconsed.  Then  it  was,  that  JSesta 
recalled  her  anticipation  of  his  possible  design  ;  forgotten 
by  her  during  their  talk  of  her  dear  people:  Priscilla  Graves 
and  Mr.  Pempton,  and  the  Yatts,  and  Simeon  Fenellan, 
Peridon  and  Catkin,  and  Skepsey  likewise ;  and  the  very 
latest  news  of  her  mother.  Shn  wished  she  could  have  run 
before  him,  to  spare  him.  He  would  not  notice  a  sign. 
Girls  must  wait  and  hear. 

It  was  an  oratorio.     She  watched  the  long  wave  roll  on 


A  PAIR   OF   WOOERS.  815 

to  the  sinking  into  its  fellow ;  and  onward  again  for  the 
swell  and  the  weariful  lapse ;  and  tip  at  last  bursting  to  the 
sheet  of  white.  The  far-heard  roar  and  the  near  commingled, 
giving  Mr.  Barm  by  a  semblance  to  the  powers  of  ocean. 

At  the  first  direct  note,  the  burden  of  which  necessitated 
a  pause,  she  petitioned  him  to  be  her  friend,  to  think  of 
himself  as  her  friend. 

But  a  vessel  laden  with  merchandize,  that  has  crossed 
wild  seas  for  this  particular  port,  is  hardly  to  be  debarred 
from  discharging  its  goods  on  the  quay  by  simple  intimations 
of  their  not  being  wanted.  We  are  precipitated  both  by  the 
aim  and  the  tedium  of  the  lengthened  voyage  to  insist  that 
they  be  seen.  We  believe  perforce  in  their  temptingness ; 
and  should  allurement  fail,  we  fall  back  to  the  belief  in  our 
eloquence.  An  eloquence  to  expose  the  qualities  they  possess, 
is  the  testification  in  the  promise  of  their  excellence.  She 
is  to  be  induced  by  feeling  to  see  it.  We  are  asking  a  young 
lady  for  the  precious  gift  of  her  hand.  We  respect  her ;  and 
because  of  our  continued  respect,  despite  an  obstruction,  we 
have  come  to  think  we  have  a  claim  upon  her  gratitude; 
could  she  but  be  led  to  understand  how  different  we  are 
from  some  other  men ! — from  one  hitherto  favoured  among 
them,  unworthy  of  this  prize,  however  personally  exalted 
and  meritorious. 

The  wave  of  wide  extension  rolled  and  sank  and  rose, 
heaving  lifeless  variations  of  the  sickly  streaks  on  its  dull 
green  back. 

Dudley  Sowerby'g  defection  was  hinted  at  and  accounted 
for,  by  the  worldly  test  of  worldly  considerations. 

What  were  they  ? — Nesta  glanced. 

An  indistinct  comparison  was  modestly  presented,  of  one 
anmoved  by  worldly  considerations. 

But  what  were  they  ?  She  was  wakened  by  a  lamp,  and 
her  darkness  was  all  inflammable  to  it. 

"  Oh  !  Mr.  Barmby,  you  have  done  me  the  honour  to  speak 
before  ;  you  know  my  answer,"  she  said. 

"  You  were  then  subject  to  an  influence.  A  false,  I  may 
say  wicked,  sentiment  upholding  celibacy." 

"  My  poor  Louise  ?  She  never  thought  of  influencing  me. 
She  has  her  views,  I  mine.  Our  friendship  does  not  depend 
on  a  '  treaty  of  reciprocity.'  We  are  one  at  heart,  each  free 
to  judge  and  act,  as  it  should  be  in  friendship.     I  heard 


316  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

from  her  this  morning.  Her  brother  will  be  able  to  resume 
his  military  duties  next  month.  Then  she  will  return 
to  me." 

"  We  propose  ! "  rejoined  Mr.  Barmby. 

Beholding  the  involuntary  mercurial  rogue-dimple  he  had 
started  from  a  twitch  at  the  corner  of  her  lips,  the  good 
gentleman  pursued  :  "  Can  we  dare  write  our  designs  for  the 
month  to  come  ?  Ab  ! — I  will  say — Nesta !  give  me  the 
hope  1  beg  to  have.  See  the  seriousness.  You  are  at  liberty. 
That  other  has  withdrawn  his  pretensions.  We  will  not 
blame  him.  He  is  in  expectation  of  exalted  rank.  Where 
there  is  any  shadow!  ..."  Mr.  Barmby  paused  on  his 
outroll  of  the  word ;  but  immediately,  not  intending  to 
weigh  down  his  gentle  hearer  with  the  significance  in  it, 
resumed  at  a  yet  more  sonorous  depth  :  "  He  is  under  the 
obligation  to  his  family  ;  an  old,  a  venerable  family.  In  the 
full  blaze  of  public  opinion !  His  conduct  can  be  palliated 
by  us,  too.  There  is  a  right  and  wrong  in  minor  things, 
independent  of  the  higher  rectitude.  We  pardon,  we  can 
partly  support,  the  worldly  view." 

'*  There  is  a  shadow  ?  "  said  Nesta ;  and  her  voice  was 
lurefully  encouraging. 

He  was  on  the  looting  where  men  are  precipitated  by 
what  is  within  them  to  blunder.  "  On  you — no.  On  you 
personally,  not  at  all.  No.  It  could  not  be  deemed  so.  Not 
by  those  knowing,  esteeming — not  by  him  who  loves  you, 
and  would,  with  his  name,  would,  with  his  whole  strength, 
envelop,  shield  .  .  .  certainly  certainly  not." 

"  It  is  on  my  parents?  "  she  said. 

"  But  to  me  nothing,  nothing,  quite  naught !  To  confound 
the  innocent  with  the  guilty !  .  .  .  and  excuses  may  exist. 
We  know  but  how  little  we  know !  " 

"  It  is  on  both  my  parents  ?  "  she  said ;  with  a  simplicity 
that  induced  him  to  reply :  "  Before  the  world.  But  not, 
I  repeat  .  .  ." 

The  band- instruments  behind  the  sheltering  glass  flourished 
on  their  termination  of  a  waltz. 

She  had  not  heeded  their  playing.  Now  she  said  :  "  The 
music  is  over ;  we  must  not  be  late  at  lunch  ;  "  and  she  stood 
up  and  moved. 

He  sprang  to  his  legs  and  obediently  stepped  out :  "  I 
shall  have  your  answer  to-day?  this  evening  ?     Nesta  !  " 


A   PAIR    OP   WOOERS.  817 

u  Mr.  Barmby,  it  will  be  the  same.  You  will  be  kind  to 
me  in  not  asking  me  again." 

He  spoke  further.     (She  was  dumb. 

Had  he  done  ill  or  well  for  himself  and  for  her  when  he 
named  the  shadow  on  her  parents?  He  dwelt  more  on  her 
than  on  himself:  he  would  not  have  wounded  her  to  win  the 
blest  affirmative.  Could  she  have  been  entirely  ignorant? — 
and  after  Dudley  Sowerby's  defection  ?  For  such  it  was : 
the  Eev.  Stuart  Eem  had  declared  the  union  between  the 
almost  designated  head  of  the  Cantor  family  and  a  young 
person  of  no  name,  of  worse  than  no  birth,  impossible : 
*'  absolutely  and  totally  impossible,"  he  had  said,  in  his 
impressive  fashion,  speaking  from  his  knowledge  of  the 
family  and  an  acquaintance  with  Dudley.  She  must  neces- 
sarily have  learnt  why  Dudley  Sowerby  withdrew.  No 
parents  of  an  attractive  daughter  should  allow  her  to  remain 
unaware  of  her  actual  position  in  the  world.  It  is  criminal, 
a  reduplication  of  the  criminality  !  Yet  she  had  not  spoken 
as  one  astonished.  She  was  mysterious.  Women  are  so : 
young  women  most  of  all.  It  is  undecided  still  whether 
they  do  of  themselves  conceive  principles,  or  should  submit 
to  an  imposition  of  the  same  upon  them  in  terrorem. — 
Mysterious  truly,  but  most  attractive!  As  Lady  Bountiful 
of  a  district,  she  would  have  in  her  maturity  the  majestic 
stature  to  suit  a  dispensation  of  earthly  good  things.  And, 
strangely,  here  she  was,  at  this  moment,  rivalling  to  excelling 
all  others  of  her  sex  (he  verified  it  in  the  crowd  of  female 
faces  passing),  when  they,  if  they  but  knew  the  facts,  would 
visit  her  very  appearance  beside  them  on  a  common  footing 
as  an  intrusion  and  a  scandal.  To  us  who  know,  such 
matters  are  indeed  wonderful ! 

Moved  by  reflective  compassion,  Mr.  Barm  by  resumed  the 
wooer's  note,  some  few  steps  after  he  had  responded  to  the 
salutation  of  Dartrey  Fenellan  and  Colonel  Sudley.  She 
did  not  speak.  She  turned  her  forehead  to  him;  and  the 
absence  of  the  world  from  her  eyes  chilled  his  tongue. 

He  declined  the  pleasure  of  the  lunch  with  the  Duvidney 
ladies.  He  desired  to  be  alone,  to  question  himself  lasting, 
to  sound  the  deed  he  had  done  ;  for  he  had  struck  on  a 
suspicion  of  selfishness  in  it :  and  though  Love  must  needs 
be  an  egoism,  Love  is  no  warrant  for  the  doing  of  a  hurt  to 
the  creature  beloved.     Thoughts  upon  Skepsey  and  the  tale 


318  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

of  his  Matilda  Pridden's  labours  in  poor  neighbourhoods,  to 
which  he  had  been  inattentive  during  the  journey  down 
to  the  sea,  invaded  him  ;  they  were  persistent.  He  was  a 
worthy  man,  having  within  him  the  spiritual  impulse 
curiously  ready  to  take  the  place  where  a  material  disap- 
pointment left  vacancy.  The  vulgar  sort  embrace  the  devil 
at  that  stage.  Before  the  day  had  sunk,  Mr.  Barm  by 's 
lowest  wisii  was,  to  be  a  light,  as  the  instrument  of  his 
Church  in  her  ministrations  amid  the  haunts  of  sin  and 
slime,  to  such  plain  souls  as  Daniel  Skepsey  and  Matilda 
Pridden.  And  he  could  sstill  be  that,  if  Nesta,  in  the  chapters 
of  the  future,  changed  her  mind.  She  might ;  for  her  good 
she  would  ;  he  reserved  the  hope.  His  light  was  one  to  burn 
beneath  an  extinguisher. 

At  the  luncheon  table  of  the  Duvidney  ladies,  it  was  a 
pain  to  Dorothea  and  Virginia  to  witness  how  poor  the 
appetite  their  Nesta  brought  in  from  the  briny  blowy  walk. 
They  prophesied  against  her  chances  of  a  good  sleep  at 
night,  if  she  did  not  eat  heartily.  Virginia  timidly  remarked 
on  her  paleness.  Both  of  them  put  their  simple  arts  in 
motion  to  let  her  know,  that  she  was  dear  to  them :  so  dear 
as  to  make  them  dread  the  hour  of  parting.  They  named 
their  dread  of  it.  They  had  consulted  in  private  and  owned 
to  one  another,  that  they  did  really  love  the  child,  and  dared 
not  look  forward  to  what  they  should  do  without  her.  The 
dear  child's  paleness  and  want  of  appetite  (they  remembered 
they  were  observing  a  weak  innocent  girl)  suggested  to  them 
mutually  ihe  idea  of  a  young  female  heart  sickening,  for  the 
old  unhappy  maiden  reason.  But,  if  only  she  might  return 
with  them  to  the  Wells,  the  Eev.  Stuart  Rem  would  assure 
her  to  convince  her  of  her  not  being  quite  quite  forsaken. 
He,  or  some  one  having  sanction  from  Victor,  might  ulti- 
mately (the  ladies  waiting  anxiously  in  the  next  room,  to 
fold  her  on  the  warmth  of  their  bosoms  when  she  had  heard) 
impart  to  her  the  knowledge  of  circumstances,  which  would, 
under  their  further  tuition  concerning  the  particular  senti- 
ments of  great  families  and  the  strict  duties  of  the  scions  of 
the  race,  help  to  account  for  and  excuse  the  Hon.  Dudley 
Sowerby's  behaviour. 

They  went  up  to  the  drawing-room,  talking  of  Skepsey 
and  his  tale  of  Miss  Pridden,  for  Nesta's  amusement.  Any 
talk  of  her  Skepsey  usually  quickened  her  lips  to  reminiscent 


A.  PAIB   OF   WOOERS.  319 

smiles  and  speech.  Now  she  held  on  to  gazeing ;  and  sadly, 
it  seemed  ;  as  if  some  object  were  not  present. 

For  a  vague  encouragement,  Dorothea  said :  "  One  week, 
and  we  are  back  home  at  Moorsedge !  " — not  so  far  from 
Cronidge,  was  implied,  for  the  administering  of  some  fooli.-h 
temporary  comfort.  And  it  was  as  when  a  fish  on  land 
springs  its  hollow  sides  in  alien  air  for  the  sustaining 
element;  the  girl  panted  ;  she  clasped  Dorothea's  hand  and 
looked  at  Virginia:  "My  mother — I  must  see  her!"  she 
said.  They  were  slightly  stupefied  by  the  unwonted  mention 
of  her  mother.  They  made  no  reply.  They  never  had  done 
so  when  there  was  allusion  to  her  mother.  Their  silence 
now  struck  a  gonu;  at  the  girl's  bosom. 

Dorothea  had  it  in  mind  to  say,  that  if  she  thirsted  for 
any  special  comfort,  the  friends  about  her  would  offer  con- 
solation for  confidence. 

Before  she  could  speak,  Perrin  the  footman  entered,  bear- 
ing the  card  of  the  Hon.  Dudley  Sowerby. 

Mr.  Dudley  Sowerby  begged  for  an  immediate  interview 
with  Miss  Eadnor. 

The  ladies  were  somewhat  agitated,  but  no  longer  per- 
plexed as  to  their  duties.  They  had  quitted  Moorsedge  to 
avoid  the  visit  of  his  family.  If  he  followed,  it  signified 
that  which  they  could  not  withstand  : — "  The  Tivoli  tails !  " 
as  they  named  the  fateful  tremendous  human  passion,  from 
the  reminiscences  of  an  impressive  day  on  their  travels  in 
youth  ;  when  the  leaping  torrent  had  struck  upon  a  tale  of 
love  they  were  reading.  They  hurriedly  entreated  Nesta 
to  command  her  nerves  ;  peremptorily  requested  her  to  stay 
where  she  was;  showed  her  spontaneously,  by  way  of 
histrionic  adjuration,  the  face  to  be  worn  by  young  ladies 
at  greetings  on  these  occasions  ;  kissed  her  and  left  her ; 
Virginia  whispering  :  "  He  is  true  !  " 

Dudley  entered  the  drawing-room,  charged  with  his  happy 
burden  of  a  love  that  had  passed  through  the  furnace.  She 
stood  near  a  window,  well  in  the  light;  she  hardly  gave 
him  welcome.  His  address  to  her  was  hurried,  rather  un- 
certain, coherent  enough  between  the  drop  and  the  catch  of 
articulate  syllables.  He  found  himself  holding  his  hat.  He 
placed  it  on  the  table,  and  it  rolled  foolishly ;  but  soon  he 
was  by  her  side,  having  two  free  hands  to  claim  her  one. 

"  You  are  thinking,  you  have  not  heard  from  me  I     I  have 


320  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

been  much  occupied,"  he  said.     "  My  brother  is  ill,  very  ill. 
I  have  vour  pardon  ?  " 

"  Indeed  you  have — if  it  has  to  be  asked." 

"I  have  it?" 

"  Have  I  to  grant  it  ?  " 

«'  1  own  to  remissness." 

"  I  did  not  blame  you." 

"  Nesta  !  .  .  .  " 

Her  coldness  was  unshaken. 

He  repeated  the  call  of  her  name.  "I  should  have 
written — I  ought  to  have  written  ! — I  could  not  have  ex- 
pressed. .   .  .  You  do  forgive?     So  many  things  1  " 

"  You  come  from  Oronidge  to-day  ? '" 

"  From  my  family — to  you." 

She  seemed  resentful.  His  omissions  as  a  correspondent 
were  explicable  in  a  sentence.     It  had  to  be  deferred. 

Keviewing  for  a  moment  the  enormous  internal  conflict 
undergone  by  him  during  the  period  of  the  silence  between 
them,  he  wondered  at  the  vastness  of  the  love  which  had 
conquered  objections,  to  him  so  poignant. 

There  was  at  least  no  seeing  of  the  public  blot  on  her 
birth  when  looking  on  her  face.  Nor  when  thinking  of  the 
beauty  of  her  character,  in  absence  or  in  presence,  was  there 
any.  He  had  mastered  distaste  to  such  a  degree,  that  he 
forgot  the  assistance  he  had  received  from  the  heiress  for 
enabling  him  to  appreciate  the  fair  young  girl.  Money  is 
the  imperious  requirement  of  superior  station ;  and  more 
money  and  more :  in  these  our  modern  days  of  the  merchant's 
wealth,  and  the  miner's,  and  the  gigantic  American  and 
Australian  millionaires,  high  rank  is  of  necessity  vowed,  in 
peril  of  utter  eclipse,  to  the  possession  of  money.  Still  it  is, 
when  assured,  a  consideration  far  to  the  rear  with  a  gentle- 
man in  whose  bosom  love  and  the  buzzing  world  have  fought 
their  battle  out.  He  could  believe  it  thoroughly  fought  out, 
by  the  prolonged  endurance  of  a  contest  lasting  many  days 
and  nights ;  in  the  midst  of  which,  at  one  time,  the  task  of 
writing  to  tell  her  of  his  withdrawal  from  the  engagement, 
was  the  cause  of  his  omission  to  write. 

As  to  her  character,  he  dwelt  on  the  charm  of  her  recovered 
features,  to  repress  an  indicative  dread  of  some  intrepid 
force  behind  it,  that  might  be  un  feminine,  however  gonrle 
the  external   lineaments.      Her  ieaturea,  her  pies^nt  aris- 


A   PAJR   OF   WOOERS.  821 

tocratio  deficiency  of  colour,  greatly  pleased  him;  her 
character  would  submit  to  moulding.  Of  all  young  ladies 
in  the  world,  she  should  be  the  one  to  shrink  from  a  mental 
independence  and  hold  to  the  guidance  of  the  man  ennobling 
her.  Did  she?  Her  eyes  were  reading  him.  She  had  her 
father's  limpid  eyes,  and  when  they  concentrated  rays,  they 
shot. 

"  Have  you  seen  my  parents,  Mr.  Sowerby  ?  " 

He  answered  smilingly,  for  reassuringly :  "  I  have  seen 
them." 

41  My  mother?" 

•*  From  your  mother  first.     But  am  I  not  to  be  Dudley  ? ' 

"  She  spoke  to  you  ?     She  told  you  ?  " 

44  And  yesterday  your  father — a  second  time." 

Some  remainder  of  suspicion  in  the  dealing  with  members 
of  this  family,  urged  Dudley  to  say :  "  I  understood  from 
them,  you  were  not?  .  .  .  that  you  were  quite?  .  .  ." 

"  I  have  heard  :  I  have  guessed :  it  was  recently — this 
morning,  as  it  happened.  I  wish  to  go  to  my  mother  to-day. 
I  shall  go  to  her  to-morrow." 

"  I  might  offer  to  conduct  you — now ! " 

"  You  are  kind ;  I  have  Skepsey."  She  relieved  the 
situation  of  its  cold-toned  strain  in  adding :  "  He  is  a  host." 

"But  I  may  come? — now!  Have  I  not  the  right?  You 
do  not  deny  it  me  ?  " 

"  You  are  very  generous." 

"  I  claim  the  right,  then.  Always.  And  subsequently, 
soon  after,  my  mother  hopes  to  welcome  you  at  Cronidge. 
She  will  be  glad  to  hear  of  your  naming  of  a  day.  My 
father  bids  me  ...  he  and  all  our  family." 

"  They  are  very  generous." 

"  I  may  send  them  word  this  evening  of  a  day  you  name  ?  " 

"  No,  Mr.  Sowerby." 

«*  Dudley?" 

**  I  cannot  say  it.     I  have  to  see  my  parents." 

"  Between  us,  surely  ?  " 

"  My  whole  heart  thanks  you  for  your  goodness  to  me. 
I  am  unable  to  say  more." 

He  had  again  observed  and  he  slightly  crisped  under  the 
speculative  look  she  directed  on  him :  a  simple  unstrained 
look,  that  had  an  air  of  reading  right  in,  and  was  worse  to 
"bear  with  than  when  the  spark  leaped  upon  some  thought 

T 


322  ONE    OP    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

from  her  eyes:  though  he  had  no  imagination  of  anything 
he  concealed  or  exposed,  and  he  would  have  set  it  down  to 
her  temporary  incredulousness  of  his  perfect  generosity  or 
power  to  overcome  the  world's  opinion  of  certain  circum- 
stances. That  had  been  a  struggle !  The  peculiar  look  was 
not  renewed.  She  spoke  warmly  of  her  gratitude.  She 
stated,  that  she  must  of  necessity  see  her  parents  at  once. 
She  submitted  to  his  entreaty  to  conduct  her  to  them  on  the 
morrow.  It  was  in  the  manner  of  one  who  yielded  step  by 
step,  from  inability  to  contend. 

Her  attitude  continuing  unchanged,  he  became  sensible 
of  a  monotony  in  the  speech  with  which  he  assailed  it,  and 
he  rose  to  leave,  not  dissatisfied.  She,  at  his  urgent  request, 
named  her  train  for  London  in  the  early  morning.  He  said 
it  was  not  too  early.  He  would  have  desired  to  be  warmed ; 
yet  he  liked  her  the  better  for  the  moral  sentiment  con- 
trolling the  physical.  He  had  appointments  with  relatives 
or  connections  in  the  town,  and  on  that  pretext  he  departed, 
hoping  for  the  speedy  dawn  of  the  morrow  as  soon  as  he 
had  turned  his  back  on  the  house. 

No,  not  he  the  man  to  have  pity  of  women  underfoot ! — 
That  was  the  thought,  unrevolved,  unphrased,  all  but 
unconscious,  in  Nesta :  and  while  her  heart  was  exalting 
him  for  his  generosity.  Under  her  present  sense  of  the 
chilling  shadow,  she  felt  the  comfort  there  was  in  being 
grateful  to  him  for  the  golden  beams  which  his  generosity 
cast  about  her.  But  she  had  an  intelligence  sharp  to  pierce, 
virgin  though  she  was ;  and  with  the  mark  in  sight,  how- 
ever distant,  she  struck  it,  unerring  as  an  Artemis  for  blood 
of  beasts :  those  shrewd  young  wits,  on  the  look-out  to  find 
a  champion,  athirst  for  help  upon  a  desolate  road,  were  hard 
as  any  judicial  to  pronounce  the  sentence  upon  Dudley  in 
that  respect.  She  raised  him  high  ;  she  placed  herself  low ; 
she  had  a  glimpse  of  the  struggle  he  had  gone  through ; 
love  of  her  had  helped  him,  she  believed.  And  she  was 
melted ;  and  not  the  less  did  the  girl's  implacable  intuition 
read  with  the  keenness  of  eye  of  a  man  of  the  world  the 
blunt  division  in  him,  where  warm  humanity  stopped  short 
at  the  wall  of  social  concrete  forming  a  part  of  this  rightly 
esteemed  young  citizen.  She,  too,  was  divided :  she  was  at 
his  feet;  and  she  rebuked  herself  for  daring  to  judge — or 
rather,  it  was,  for  having  a  reserve  in  her  mind  upon  a  man 


A   PAIR   OF   WOOERS.  323 

proving  so  generous  with  her.  She  was  pulled  this  way  and 
that  by  sensibilities  both  inspiring  to  blind  gratitude  and 
quickening  her  penetrative  view.  The  certainty  of  an 
unerring  perception  remained. 

Dorothea  and  Virginia  were  seated  in  the  room  below, 
waiting  for  their  carriage,  when  the  hall-door  spoke  of  the 
Hon.  Dudley's  departure ;  soon  after,  Nesta  entered  to  them, 
She  swam  up  to  Dorothea's  lap,  and  dropped  her  head  on 
it,  kneeling. 

The  ladies  feared  she  might  be  weeping.  Dorothea  patted 
her  thick  brown  twisted  locks  of  hair.  Unhappiness  follow- 
ing such  an  interview,  struck  them  as  an  ill  sign. 

Virginia  bent  to  the  girl's  ear,  and  murmured:  "All  well?" 
She  replied  :  "  He  has  been  very  generous." 
Her  speaking  of  the  words  renewed  an  oppression,  that 
had  darkened  her  on  the  descent  of  stairs.  For  sensibilities 
sharp  as  Nesta's,  are  not  to  be  had  without  their  penalties : 
and  she  who  had  gone  nigh  to  summing  in  a  flash  the 
nature  of  Dudley,  sank  suddenly  under  that  affliction  often 
besetting  the  young  adventurous  mind,  crushing  to  young 
women: — the  fascination  exercised  upon  them  by  a  positive 
adverse  masculine  attitude  and  opinion.  Young  men  know 
well  what  it  is :  and  if  young  women  have  by  chance  over 
come  their  timidity,  to  the  taking  of  any  step  out  of  the 
trim  pathway,  they  shrink,  with  a  sense  of  forlornest 
isolation.  It  becomes  a  subjugation;  inciting  to  revolt, 
but  a  heavy  weight  to  cast  off.  Soon  it  assumed  its  material 
form  for  the  contention  between  her  and  Dudley,  in  the 
figure  of  Mrs.  Marsett.  The  Nesta  who  had  been  instructed 
to  know  herself  to  be  under  a  shadow,  heard,  she  almost 
justified  Dudley's  reproaches  to  her,  for  having  made  the 
acquaintance  ot  the  unhappy  woman,  for  having  visited  her, 
for  having  been,  though,  but  for  a  minute,  at  the  mercy  of 
a  coarse  gentleman's  pursuit.  The  recollection  was  a  smart 
buffet. 

Her  lighted  mind  punished  her  thus  through  her  conjuring 
of  Dudley's  words,  should  news  of  her  relations  with  Mrs. 
Marsett  reach  him : — and  she  would  have  to  tell  him. 
Would  he  not  say :  ■  I  have  borne  with  the  things  concern- 
ing your  family.  All  the  greater  reason  why  I  must  insist 
.  .  .'  he  would  assuredly  say  he  insisted  (her  humour  caught 
at  the  word,  as  being  the  very  word  one  could  foresee  and 


324  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

clearly  see  him  uttering  in  a  fit  of  vehemence)  on  her 
immediate  abandonment  of  'that  woman.' 

And  with  Nesta's  piesent  enlightenment  by  dusky  beams, 
upon  her  parentage,  she  listened  abjectly  to  Dudley,  or  the 
opinion  of  the  majority.  Would  he  not  say  or  think,  that 
her  clinging  to  Mrs.  Marsett  put  them  under  a  kind  of 
common  stamp,  or  gave  the  world  its  option  to  class  them 
together  ? 

These  were  among  the  ideas  chasing  in  a  head  destined 
to  be  a  battle-field  for  the  enrichment  of  a  harvest-field  of 
them,  while  the  girl's  face  was  hidden  on  Dorothea's  lap, 
and  her  breast  heaved  and  heaved. 

She  distressed  them  when  she  rose,  by  saying  she  must 
instantly  see  her  mother. 

They  saw  the  pain  their  hesitation  inflicted,  and  Dorothea 
said  :  "  Yes,  dear ;  any  day  you  like." 

"  To-morrow — I  must  go  to  her  to-morrow  !  " 

A  suggestion  of  her  mother's  coming  down,  was  faintly 
spoken  by  one  lady,  echoed  in  a  quaver  by  the  other. 

Nesta  shook  her  head.  To  quiet  the  kind  souls,  she 
entreated  them  to  give  their  promise  that  they  would  invite 
her  again. 

Imagining  the  Hon.  Dudley  to  have  cast  her  off,  both 
ladies  embraced  her:  not  entirely  yielding-up  their  hearts 
to  her,  by  reason  of  the  pernicious  new  ideas  now  in  the 
world  to  sap  our  foundations  of  morality;  which  warned 
them  of  their  duty  to  uphold  mentally  his  quite  justifiable 
behaviour,  even  when  compassionating  the  sufferings  of  the 
guiltless  creature  loved  by  them. 


CHAPTEE  XXXIV. 

CONTAINS   DEEDS   UNRELATED   AND    EXPOSITIONS  OF  FEELINGS. 

All  through  the  afternoon  and  evening  Skepsey  showed 
indifference  to  meals  by  continuing  absent:  and  he  was  the 
one  with  whom  Nesta  would  have  felt  at  home;  more  at 
home  than  with  her  parents.  He  and  the  cool  world  he 
moved  in  were  a  transparency  of  peace  to  her  mind;  even  to 


EXPOSITIONS    OF    FEELINGS.  825 

his  giving  of  some  portion  of  it,  when  she  had  the  dear 
little  man  present  to  her  in  a  vivid  image  of  a  fish  in  a 
glass-globe,  wandering  round  and  round,  now  and  then  shoot- 
ing across,  just  as  her  Skepsey  did :  he  carried  his  head 
Femi-horizontally  at  his  arrowy  pace ;  plain  to  read  though 
he  was,  he  appeared,  under  that  image  created  of  him,  animated 
by  motives  inducing  to  speculation. 

She  thought  of  him  till  she  could  have  reproached  him 
for  not  returning  and  helping  her  to  get  away  from  the  fever 
of  other  thoughts  : — this  anguish  twisting  about  her  parents, 
and  the  dreadful  trammels  of  gratitude  to  a  man  afflictingly 
generous,  the  frown  of  congregated  people. 

The  latter  was  the  least  of  evils ;  she  had  her  charges  to 
bring  against  them  for  injustice :  uncited,  unstirred  charges, 
they  were  effective  as  a  muffled  force  to  sustain  her :  and  the 
young  who  are  of  healthy  lively  blood  and  clean  conscience 
have  either  emotion  or  imagination  to  fold  them  defensively 
from  an  enemy  world ;  whose  power  to  drive  them  forth  into 
the  wilderness  they  acknowledge.  But  in  the  wilderness 
their  souls  are  not  beaten  down  by  breath  of  mortals ;  they 
burn  straight  flame  there  up  to  the  parent  Spirit. 

She  could  not  fancy  herself  flying  thither ; — where  to  be 
shorn  and  naked  and  shivering  is  no  hardship,  for  the  solitude 
clothes,  and  the  sole  true  life  in  us  resolves  to  that  steady 
flame ; — she  was  restrained  by  Dudley's  generosity,  which 
held  her  fast  to  have  the  forgiveness  for  her  uncommitted  sin 
dashed  in  her  face.  He  surprised  her ;  the  unexpected  quality 
in  him  seemed  suddenly  to  have  snared  her  fast :  and  she  did 
not  obtain  release  after  seeing  behind  it ; — seeing  it,  by  the 
light  of  what  she  demanded,  personal,  shallow,  a  lover's 
'  generosity.  So  her  keen  intellect  saw  it ;  and  her  young 
blood  (for  the  youthful  are  thus  divided)  thrilled  in  thinking 
it  must  be  love !  The  name  of  the  sacred  passion  lifted  it 
out  of  the  petty  cabin  of  the  individual  into  a  quiring 
cathedral  universal,  and  subdued  her.  It  subdued  her  with 
an  unwelcome  touch  of  tenderness  when  she  thought  of  it 
as  involving  tenderness  for  her  mother,  some  chivalrous 
respect  for  her  mother.  Could  he  love  the  daughter  without 
some  little,  which  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  her  dear 
mother  would  enlarge  ?  The  girl's  heart  flew  to  her  mother, 
clung  to  her,  vindicated  her  dumbly.  It  would  not  inquire, 
and  it  refused  to  hear,  hungering  the  while.     She  sent  forth 


326  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

her  flights  of  stories  in  elucidation  of  the  hidden ;  and  they 
were  like  white  bird  after  bird  winging  to  covert  beneath 
a  thundercloud;  until  her  breast  ached  for  the  voice  of  the 
thunder :  harsh  facts :  sure  as  she  was  of  her  never  losing  her 
filial  hold  of  the  beloved.  She  and  her  mother  grew  together, 
they  were  one.  Accepting  the  shadow,  they  were  the  closer 
one  beneath  it.  She  had  neither  vision  nor  active  thought 
of  her  father,  in  whom  her  pride  was. 

At  the  hour  of  ten,  the  ladies  retired  for  the  enjoyment 
of  their  sweet  reward.  Manton,  their  maid,  came  down  to 
sit  with  Nesta  on  the  watch  for  Skepsey.  Perrin,  the  foot- 
man, returning,  as  late  as  twenty  minutes  to  eleven,  from 
his  tobacco  promenade  along  the  terrace,  reported  to  Manton 
"  a  row  in  town  "  ;  and  he  repeated  to  Nesta  the  policeman's 
opinion  and  his  own  of  the  "  Army  "  fellows,  and  the  way  to 
treat  them.     Both  were  for  rigour. 

"  The  name  of  '  Army '  attracts  poor  Skepsey  so,  I  am  sura 
he  would  join  it,  if  they  would  admit  him,"  Nesta  said. 

"  He  has  an  immense  respect  for  a  young  woman,  who 
belongs  to  his  '  Army ' ;  and  one  doesn't  know  what  may 
have  come,"  said  Manton. 

Two  or  three  minutes  after  eleven,  a  feeble  ring  at  the 
bell  gained  admission  for  some  person :  whispering  was  heard 
in  the  passage.  Manton  played  eavesdropper,  and  suddenly 
bursting  on  Skepsey,  arrested  him  when  about  to  dash  upstairs. 
His  young  mistress's  voice  was  a  sufficient  command;  he 
yielded ;  he  pitched  a  smart  sigh  and  stepped  into  her  pre- 
sence for  his  countenance  to  be  seen,  or  the  show  of  a 
countenance,  that  it  presented. 

"  Skepsey  wanted  to  rush  to  bed  without  saying  good 
night  to  me  ? "  said  she ;  leaving  unnoticed,  except  for 
woefulness  of  tone,  his  hurried  shuffle  of  remarks  on  "his 
appearance,"  and  "  little  accidents ; "  ending  with  an  in- 
clination of  his  disgraceful  person  to  the  doorway,  and  a 
petition  :  "  If  I  might,  Miss  Nesta  ?  "  The  implied  pathetic 
reference  to  a  surgically- treated  nose  under  a  cross  of 'strips 
of  plaster,  could  not  obtain  dismissal  for  him.  And  he  had 
one"  eye  of  sinister  hue,  showing  beside  its  lighted-grey 
fellow  as  i  f  a  sullen  punished  dragon-whelp  had  couched  near 
some  quick  wood-pigeon.  The  two  eyes  blinked  rapidly. 
He  was  a  picture  of  Guilt  in  the  nude,  imploring  to  be  sent 
into  concealment. 


EXPOSITIONS   OF   FEELINGS.  827 

The  cruelty  of  detaining  him  was  evident. 

u  Yes,  if  you  must,"  Nesta  said.  "  But,  dear  Skepsey,  will 
it  be  the  magistrate  again  to-morrow  ?  " 

Me  feared  it  would  be  ;  he  fancied  it  would  needs  be.  He 
concluded  by  stating,  that  he  was  bound  to  appear  before 
the  magistrate  in  the  morning ;  and  he  begged  assistance  to 
keep  it  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Miss  Duvidneys,  who  had 
been  so  kind  to  him. 

"  Has  there  been  bailing  of  you  again,  Skepsey?  " 

'•A  good  gentleman,  a  resident,"  he  replied;  "a  military 
gentleman  ;  indeed,  a  colonel  of  the  cavalry  ;  but,  it  may  so 
be,  retired;  and  anxious  about  our  vast  possessions ;  though 
he  thinks  a  translation  of  a  French  attack  on  England  un- 
important.    He  says,  the  Germans  despise  us  most." 

"  Then  this  gentleman  thinks  you  have  a  good  case?" 

"  He  is  a  friend  of  Captain  Dartrey's." 

Hearing  that  name,  Nesta  said  :  "  Now,  Skepsey,  you  must 
tell  me  everything.  You  are  not  to  mind  your  looks.  I 
believe,  I  do  always  believe  you  mean  well." 

"  Miss  Nesta,  it  depends  upon  the  magistrate's  not  being 
prejudiced  against  the  street-processionists." 

"  But  you  may  expect  justice  from  the  magistrate,  if  your 
case  is  good  ?  " 

"  I  would  not  say  no.  Miss  Nesta.  But  we  find,  the  opinion 
of  the  public  has  its  effect  with  magistrates — their  sentences. 
They  are  severe  on  boxing.  They  have  latterly  treated  the 
*  Army '  with  more  consideration,  owing  to  the  change  in  the 
public  view.     I  myself  have  changed." 

"  Have  you  joined  it?" 

"  I  cannot  say  I  am  a  member  of  it." 

"You  walked  in  the  ranks  to-day,  and  you  were  mal- 
treated ?     Your  friend  was  there  ?  " 

**  1  walked  with  Matilda  Pridden ;  that  is,  parallel,  along 
the  pavement." 

"  I  hope  she  came  out  of  it  unhurt  ?  " 

•'  It  is  thanks  to  Captain  Dartrey,  Miss  Nesta." 

This  time  Nesta  looked  her  question. 

Manton  interposed:  "You  are  to  speak,  Mr.  Skepsey;" 
and  she  stopped  a  flood  of  narrative,  that  was  knocking  in 
his  mind  to  feel  its  head  and  to  leap — an  uninterrupted  half- 
minute  more  would  have  shaped  the  story  for  the  proper 
flow. 


328  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

He  began,  after  attending  to  the  throb  of  his  bruises  in  a 
manner  to  correct  them  rather  than  solace;  and  the  begin- 
ning was  the  end:  "Captain  Dartrey  rescued  us,  before 
Matilda  Pridden  suffered  harm,  to  mention — the  chin,  slight, 
teeth  unshaken  ;  a  beautiful  set.  She  is  angry  with  Captain 
Dartrey,  for  having  recourse  to  violence  in  her  defence  :  it  is 
against  her  principles.  '  Then  you  die,'  she  says ;  and  our 
piinciples  are  to  gain  more  by  death.  She  says,  we  are  alive 
in  them ;  but  worse  if  we  abandon  them  tor  the  sake  of 
living. — I  am  a  little  confuse^;  she  is  very  abstruse  — 
Because,  that  is  the  corruptible  life,  she  says.  I  have  found 
it  quite  impossible  to  argue  with  her ;  she  has  always  a 
complete  answer;  wonderful.  In  case  of  Invasion,  we  are 
to  lift  our  voices  to  the  Lord ;  and  the  Lord's  will  shall  be 
manifested.  If  we  are  robbed,  we  ask,  How  came  we  by  the 
goods.  It  is  unreasonable ;  it  strikes  at  rights  of  property. 
But  I  have  to  go  on  thinking.  When  in  danger,  she  sings 
without  excitement.  When  the  blow  struck  her,  she  stopped 
singing  only  an  instant.  She  says,  no  one  fears,  who  has 
real  faith.  She  will  not  let  me  call  her  brave.  She  cannot 
admire  Captain  Dartrey.  Her  principles  are  opposed.  She 
said  to  him,  «  Sir,  you  did  what  seemed  to  you  right.'  She 
thinks  every  blow  struck  sends  us  back  to  the  state  of  the 
beasts.     Her  principles.  ..." 

"  How  was  it  Captain  Dartrey  happened  to  be  present, 
Skepsey?;' 

"  She  is  very  firnf.  You  cannot  move  her. — Captain 
Dartrey  was  on  his  way  to  the  station,  to  meet  a  gentleman 
from  London,  Miss  Nesta.  He  carried  a  stick — a  remarkable 
stick — he  had  shown  to  me  in  the  morning,  and  he  has  given 
it  me  now.  He  says,  he  has  done  his  last  with  it.  He  seems 
to  have  some  of  Matilda  Priclden's  ideas  about  fighting,  when 
it's  over.     He  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  the  stick,  he  said." 

"  But  who  attacked  you?     What  were  the  people ?  " 

"  Captain  Dartrey  says,  England  may  hold  up  her  head 
while  she  breeds  young  women  like  Matilda  Pridden  : — right 
or  wrong,  he  says  :  it  is  the  substance." 

Hereupon  Manton,  sick  of  Miss  Pridden,  shook  the  little 
man  with  a  snappish  word,  to  bring  him  to  attention.  She 
got  him  together  sufficiently  for  him  to  give  a  lame  version 
of  the  story ;  flat  until  he  came  to  his  heroine's  behaviour, 
when  he  brightened  a  moment,  and  he  sank  back  absorbed 


EXPOSITIONS   OF   FEELINGS.  829 

in  her  principles  and  theories  of  life.  Tt  was  understood  by 
Nesta,  that  the  processionists,  going  at  a  smart  pace,  found 
their  way  blocked  and  were  assaulted  in  one  of  the  side- 
streets  ;  and  that  Skepsey  rushed  to  the  defence  of  Matilda 
Pridden  ;  and  that,  while  they  were  engaged,  Captain  Dartrey 
was  passing  at  the  end  of  the  street,  and  recognized  one  he 
knew  in  the  thick  of  it  and  getting  the  worst  of  it,  owing  to 
numbers.  "  I  will  show  you  the  stick  he  did  it  with,  Miss 
Nesta ; "  said  Skepsey,  regardless  of  narrative ;  and  darted 
out  of  the  room  to  bring  in  the  Demerara  supple-jack ; 
holding  which,  he  became  inspired  to  relate  something  of 
Captain  Dartrey's  deeds. 

They  gave  no  pleasure  to  his  young  lady,  as  he  sadly 
perceived : — thus  it  is  with  the  fair  sex  ever,  so  fond  of  heroes  ! 
She  shut  her  eyes  from  the  sight  of  the  Demerara  supple-jack 
descending  right  and  left  upon  the  skulls  of  a  couple  of  bully 
lads.  "  That  will  do — }7ou  were  rescued.  And  now  go  to 
bed,  Skepsey ;  and  be  up  at  seven  to  breakfast  with  me," 
Nesta  said,  for  his  battle-damaged  face  would  be  more  endur- 
able to  behold  after  an  interval,  she  hoped  ;  and  she  might 
in  the  morning  dissociate  its  evil  look  from  the  deeds  of 
Captain  Dartrey. 

The  thought  of  her  hero  taking  active  part  in  a  street-fray, 
was  repulsive  to  her ;  it  swamped  his  brilliancy.  And  this 
distressed  her,  by  withdrawing  the  support  which  the 
thought  of  him  had  been  to  her  since  midday.  She  lay  for 
sleepless  hours,  while  nursing  a  deeper  pain,  under  oppres- 
sion of  repugnance  to  battle-dealing,  blood-shedding  men. 
It.  was  long  before  she  grew  mindful  of  the  absurdity  of  the 
moan  recurring  whenever  reflection  wearied.  Translated  i  nto 
speech,  it  would  have  run :  '  In  a  street  of  the  town  !  with  a 
stick  ! ' — The  vulgar  picture  pursued  her  to  humiliation  ;  it 
robbed  her  or  dimmed  her  possession,  of  the  one  bright  thing 
she  had  remaining  to  her.  So  she  deemed  it  during  the 
heavy  sighs  of  night;  partly  conscious,  that  in  some  strange 
way  it  was  as  much  as  tossing  her  to  the  man  who  never 
could  have  condescended  to  the  pugnacious  using  of  a  stick 
in  a  street.  He,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  cover  to  the  shame- 
faced. 

Her  heart  was  weak  that  night.  She  hovered  above  it,  but 
not  so  detached  as  to  scorn  it  for  fawning  to  one — any  one — 
who  would  offer  her  and  her  mother  a  cover  from   scorn. 


830  ONE   OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

And  now  she  exalted  Dudley's  generosity,  now  citing  to  a 
low  idea  of  a  haven  in  her  father's  wealth ;  and  she  was 
unaware,  that  the  second  mood  was  deduced  from  the  first. 
She  did  know  herself  cowardly:  she  had,  too,  a  critic  in 
her  clear  head,  to  spurn  at  the  creature  who  could  think 
of  purchasing  the  world's  respect.  Dudley's  generosity 
sprang  up  to  silence  the  voice.  She  could  praise  him,  on  a 
review  of  it,  for  delicacy,  moreover;  and  the  delicacy  laid 
her  under  a  more  positive  obligation.  Her  sense  of  it  was 
not  without  a  toneless  quaint  faint  savour  of  the  romantic, 
that  her  humour  little  humorously  caught  at,  to  paint  her  a 
picture  of  former  heroes  of  fiction,  who  win  their  trying  lady 
by  their  perfection  of  good  conduct  on  a  background  of  high 
birth;  and  who  are  not  seen  to  be  wooden  before  the  volume 
closes.  Her  fatigue  of  sleeplessness  plunged  her  into  the 
period  of  poke-bonnets  and  peaky  hats  to  admire  him ;  giving 
her  the  kind  of  sweetness  we  may  imagine  ourselves  to  get 
in  the  state  of  tired  horse  munching  hay.  If  she  had  gone 
to  her  bed  with  a  noble  or  simply  estimable  plain  image  of 
one  of  her  friends  in  her  heart,  to  sustain  it,  she  would  not 
have  been  thus  abject.  Skepsey's  discoloured  eye,  and 
Captain  Dartrey's  behaviour  behind  it,  threw  her  upon 
Dudley's  generosity,  as  being  the  shield  for  an  outcast. 
Girls,  who  see  at  a  time  of  need  their  ideal  extinguished  iu 
its  appearing  tarnished,  are  very  much  at  the  disposal  of  the 
pressing  suitor.  Nesta  rose  in  the  black  winter  morn,  sum- 
moning the  best  she  could  think  of  to  glorify  Dudley,  that 
she  might  not  feel  so  doomed. 

According  to  an  agreement  overnight,  she  went  to  the 
bedroom  of  Dorothea  and  Virginia,  to  assure  them  of  her 
having  slept  well,  and  say  the  good-bye  to  them  and  their 
Tasso.  The  little  dog  was  the  growl  of  a  silken  ball 
in  a  basket.  His  mistresses  excused  him,  because  of  his 
being  unused  to  the  appearance  of  any  person  save  Manton 
in  their  bedroom.  Dorothea  kissing  her,  said  :  M  Adieu,  dear 
child  ;  and  there  is  home  with  us  always,  remember.  And, 
after  breakfast,  however  it  may  be,  you  will,  for  our  greater 
feeling  of  security,  have — she  has  our  orders — Manton — 
your  own  maid  we  consider  too  young  for  a  guardian — to 
accompany  you.  We  will  not  have  it  on  our  consciences, 
that  by  any  possibility  harm  came  to  you  while  you  were 
under  our  charge.    Tie  good  innocent  girl  we  received  from 


EXPOSITIONS    OF    FEELINGS,  331 

tho  hands  of  your  father,  we  return  to  him ;  we  are  sure  of 
that." 

Nesta  said  :  "  Mr.  Sowerby  promised  he  would  come." 

"  However  it  may  be,"  Dorothea  repeated  her  curtaining 
phrase. 

Virginia  put  in  a  word  of  apology  for  Tasso's  temper: 
he  enjoyed  ordinarily  a  slumber  of  half  an  hour's  longer 
duration.  He  was,  Dorothea  feelingly  added,  regularity 
itself.  Virginia  murmured :  "  Except  once  !  "  and  both 
were  appalled  by  the  recollection  of  that  night.  It  had, 
nevertheless,  caused  them  to  reperuse  the  Rev.  Stuart 
Eem's  published  beautiful  sermon  On  Dirt  ;  the  words  of 
which  were  an  antidote  to  the  night  of  Tasso  in  the  nostrils 
of  Mnemosyne ;  so  that  Dorothea  could  reply  to  her  sister, 
slightly  by  way  of  a  reproval,  quoting  Mr.  Stuart  Rem  at  his 
loftiest :  "  *  Let  us  not  bring  into  the  sacred  precincts  Dirt 
from  the  roads,  but  have  a  care  to  spread  it  where  it  is  a 
fructification.'  "  Virginia  produced  the  sequent  sentence, 
likewise  weighty.  Nesta  stood  between  the  thin  division  of 
their  beds,  her  right  hand  given  to  one,  her  left  to  the  other. 
They  had  the  semblance  of  a  haven  out  of  storms. 

She  reflected,  after  shutting  the  door  of  their  room,  that 
the  residing  with  them  had  been  a  means  of  casting  her — it 
was  an  effort  to  remember  how — upon  the  world  where  the 
tree  of  knowledge  grows.  She  had  eaten ;  and  she  might 
be  the  worse  for  it;  but  she  was  raised  to  a  height  that 
would  not  let  her  look  with  envy  upon  peace  and  comfort. 
Luxurious  quiet  people  were  as  ripening  glass-house  fruits. 
Her  bitter  gathering  of  the  knowledge  of  life  had  sharpened 
her  intellect ;  and  the  intellect,  even  in  the  young,  is,  and 
not  less  usefully,  hard  metal  rather  than  fallow  soil.  But  for 
the  fountain  of  human  warmth  at  her  breast,  she  might  have 
been  snared  by  the  conceit  of  intellect,  to  despise  the  simple 
and  conventional,  or  shed  the  pity  which  is  charity's  con- 
tempt. She  had  only  to  think  of  the  kindness  of  the  dear 
good  ladies ;  her  heart  jumped  to  them  at  once.  And  when 
she  fancied  hearing  thuse  innocent  souls  of  women  embracing 
her  and  reproaching  her  for  the  knowledge  of  life  she  now 
bore,  her  words  down  deep  in  her  bosom  were  :  It  has  helped 
me  to  bear  the  shock  of  other  knowledge  !  How  would  she 
have  borne  it  before  she  knew  of  the  infinitely  evil?  Saving 
for  the*  tender  compassion  weeping  over  her  mother,  she  had 


332  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

not  nni oh  acute  personal  grief.  For  this  world  condemning 
her  birth,  was  the  world  tolerant  of  that  infinitely  evil ! 
Her  intellect  fortified  her  to  be  combative  by  day,  after  the 
night  of  imagination  ;  which  splendid  power  is  not  so  service- 
able as  the  logical  mind  in  painful  seasons :  for  night  revealed 
the  world  snorting  Dragon's  breath  at  a  girl  guilty  of  know- 
ing its  vilest.  More  than  she  liked  to  recall,  it  had  driven 
her  scorched,  half  withered,  to  the  shelter  of  Dudley.  The 
daylight,  spreading  thin  at  the  windows,  restored  her  from 
that  weakness.  "  We  will  quit  England,"  she  said,  thinking 
of  her  mother  and  herself,  and  then  of  her  father's  surely 
following  them.  She  sighed  thankfully,  half  way  through, 
the  breakfast  with  Skepsey,  at  sight  of  the  hour  by  the  clock ; 
she  was  hurriedly  sentient  of  the  puzzle  of  her  feelings,  when 
she  guessed  at  a  chance  that  Dudley  would  be  delayed.  She 
supposed  herself  as  possibly  feeling  not  so  well  able  to  keep 
every  thought  of  her  head  brooding  on  her  mother  in  Dudley's 
company. 

Skepsey's  face  was  just  suflferable  by  light  of  day,  if  one 
pitied  reflecting  on  his  honest  intentions;  it  ceased  to  dis- 
colour another.  He  dropped  a  few  particulars  of  his  hero  in 
action  ;  but  the  heroine  eclipsed.  He  was  heavier  than  ever 
with  his  Matilda  Pridden.  At  the  hour  for  departure,  Perrin 
had  a  conveyance  at  the  door.  Nesta  sent  off  Skepsey  with 
a  complimentary  message  to  Captain  Dartrey.  Her  maid 
Mary  begged  her  to  finish  her  breakfast ;  Manton  suggested 
the  waiting  a  further  two  or  three  minutes.  "  We  must  not 
be  late,"  Nesta  said  ;  and  when  the  minute-hand  of  the  clock 
marked  ample  time  for  the  drive  to  the  station,  she  took  her 
seat  and  started,  keeping  her  face  resolutely  set  seaward, 
having  at  her  ears  the  ring  of  a  cry  that  was  to  come  from 
Manton.  But  Manton  was  dumb ;  she  spied  no  one  on  the 
pavement  who  signalled  to  stop  them.  And  no  one  was  at 
the  station  to  greet  them.  They  stepped  into  a  carriage 
where  they  were  alone.  Dudley  with  his  dreaded  generosity 
melted  out  of  Nesta's  thoughts,  like  the  vanishing  steam- 
wreath  on  the  dip  between  the  line  and  the  downs. 

She  passed  into  music,  as  she  always  did  under  motion  of 
carriages  and  trains,  whether  in  happiness  or  sadness :  and 
the  day  being  one  that  had  a  sky,  the  scenic  of  music  swung 
her  up  to  soar.  None  of  her  heavy  burdens  enchained, 
though  she  knew  the  weight  of  them,  with  those  of  other 


EXPOSITIONS   OF   FEELINGS.  833 

painful  souls.  The  pipeing  at  her  breast  gave  wings  to  large 
and  small  of  the  visible  ;  and  along  the  downs  went  stateliest 
of  flowing  dances;  a  copse  lengthened  to  forest;  a  pool  of 
cattle-water  caught  gray  for  flights  through  enchantment. 
Cottage-children,  wherever  seen  in  groups,  she  wreathed 
above  with  angels  to  watch  them.  Her  mind  all  the 
while  was  busy  upon  earth,  embracing  her  mother,  eyeing 
her  father.  Imagination  and  our  earthly  met  midway,  and 
still  she  flew,  until  she  was  brought  to  the  ground  by  a  shot. 
She  struggled  to  rise,  uplifting  Judith  Marsett:  a  woman 
not  so  very  much  older  than  her  own  teens,  in  the  count  of 
years,  and  ages  older;  and  the  world  pulling  at  her  heels  to 
keep  her  low.  That  unhappiest  had  no  one  but  a  sisterly  girl 
to  help  her :  and  how  she  clung  to  the  slender  help  !  Who 
else  was  there  ? 

The  good  and  the  bad  in  the  woman  struck  separate  blows 
upon  the  girl's  resonant  nature.  She  perceived  the  good, 
and  took  it  into  her  reflections.  The  bad  she  divined:  it 
approached  like  some  threat  of  inflammation.  Natures 
resonant  as  that  which  animated  this  girl,  are  quick  at  the 
wells  of  understanding  :  and  she  had  her  intimations  of  the 
world's  wisdom  in  witholding  contagious  presences  from 
the  very  many  of  the  young,  who  may  not  have  an  aim,  or 
ideal  or  strong  human  compassion,  for  a  preservative.  She 
was  assured  of  her  pos;sessing  it.  She  asked  herself  in  her 
mother's  voice,  and  answered  mutely.  She  had  the 
certainty:  for  she  rebuked  the  slavish  feverishness  of  the 
passion,  as  betrayed  by  Mrs.  Marsett ;  and  the  woman's  tone, 
as  of  strung  wires  ringing  on  a  rage  of  the  wind.  Then 
followed  her  cry  for  the  man  who  would  speak  to  Captain 
Marsett  of  his  duty  in  honour.  An  image  of  one,  accompany- 
ing the  faster  beats  of  her  heart,  beguiled  her  to  think  away 
from  the  cause.  He,  the  one  man  known  to  her,  would 
act  the  brother's  part  on  behalf  of  the  hapless  creature. 

Nesta  just  imagined  her  having  supplicated  him,  and  at 
once  imagination  came  to  dust.  She  had  to  thank  him  : 
she  knelt  to  him.  For  the  first  time  of  her  life  she  found 
herself  seized  with  her  sex's  shudder  in  the  blood. 


334  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 


CHAPTER  XXXY. 

IN  WHICH  AGAIN  WE   MAKE  USE  OF  THE  OLD    LAMPS  FOR    LIGHTING 
AN   ABYSMAL    DARKNESS. 

And  if  Nesta  had  looked  out  of  her  carriage- window  soon 
after  the  train  began  to  glide,  her  eagle  of  imagination 
would  have  reeled  from  the  heights,  with  very  different 
feelings,  earlier,  perhaps  ,a  captive,  at  sight  of  the  tardy- 
gentleman  rushing  along  the  platform,  and  bending  ear  to 
the  footman  Perrin,  and  stareing  for  one  lost. 

The  snaky  tail  of  the  train  imparted  to  Dudley  an  appre- 
hension of  the  ominous  in  his  having  missed  her.  It  wound 
away,  and  left  regrets,  which  raised  a  chorus  of  harsh 
congratulations  from  the  opposite  party  of  his  internal 
parliament. 

Neither  party  could  express  an  opinion  without  rousing 
the  other  to  an  uproar. 

He  had  met  his  cousin  South weare  overnight.  He  had 
heard,  that  there  was  talk  of  Miss  Radnor.  Her  name  was 
in  the  mouth  of  Major  Worrell.  It  was  coupled  with  the 
name  of  Mrs.  Marsett.  A  military  captain,  in  the  succession 
to  be  Sir  Edward  Marsett,  bestowed  on  her  the  shadow  of 
his  name. 

It  could  be  certified,  that  Miss  Radnor  visited  the  woman 
at  her  house.  What  are  we  to  think  of  Miss  Radnor,  save 
that  daughters  of  depraved  parents !  .  .  .  A  torture  un- 
deserved is  the  Centaur's  shirt  for  driving  us  to  lay  about 
in  all  directions.  He  who  had  swallowed  so  much — a 
thunderbolt :  a  still  undigested  discharge  from  the  perplex- 
ing heavens — jumped  frantic  under  the  pressure  upon  him 
of  more,  and  worse.  A  girl  getting  herself  talked  of  at  a 
Club!  And  she  of  all  young  ladies  should  have  been  the 
last  to  draw  round  her  that  buzz  of  tongues.  Oh  such  a 
subject ! — The  parents  pursuing  their  career  of  cynical 
ostentation  in  London,  threw  an  evil  eye  of  heredity  on 
their  offspring  in  the  egg;  making  anything  credible, 
pointing  at  tendencies. 

An  alliance  with  her  was  impossible.  So  said  disgust. 
Anger  came   like  a   stronger   beast,   and   extinguished   the 


OLD   LAMPS   FOR   LIGHTING   A   DARKNESS.  335 

safety  there  was  in  the  thing  it  consumed,  by  growing  so 
excessive  as  to  require  tempering  with  drops  of  compassion ; 
which  prepared  the  way  for  a  formal  act  of  cold  forgiveness ; 
and  the  moment  that  was  conceived,  he  had  a  passion  to 
commit  the  horrible  magnanimity,  and  did  it  on  a  grand 
scale,  and  dissolved  his  heart  in  the  grandeur,  and  enslaved 
himself  again. 

Far  from  expungeing  the  doubt  of  her,  forgiveness  gave 
it  a  stamp  and  an  edge.  His  renewed  enslavement  set  him 
perusing  his  tyrant  keenly,  as  nauseated  captives  do ;  and 
he  saw,  that  forgiveness  was  beside  the  case.  For  this  Nesta 
Victoria  Eadnor  would  not  crave  it  or  accept  it.  He  had 
mentally  played  the  woman  to  her  superior  vivaciousness 
too  long  for  him  to  see  her  taking  a  culprit's  attitude.  What 
she  did,  she  intended  to  do.  The  mother  would  not  have 
encouraged  her.  The  father  idolized  her ;  and  the  father 
was  a  frank  hedonist,  whose  blood  .  .  .  speculation  on  horse- 
back gallops  to  barren  extremes.  Eyes  like  hers — if  there 
had  not  been  the  miserable  dupes  of  girls !  Conduct  is  the 
sole  guide  to  female  character.  That  likewise  may  be  the 
hypocrite's  mask. 

Popular  artists,  intent  to  gratify  the  national  taste  for 
effects  called  realistic,  have  figured  in  scenes  of  battle  the 
raying  fragments  of  a  man  from  impact  of  a  cannon-ball  on 
his  person.  Truly  thus  it  may  be  when  flesh  contends. 
But  an  image  of  the  stricken  and  scattered  mind  of  the  man 
should,  though  deficient  in  the  attraction,  have  a  greater 
significance,  forasmuch  as  it  does  not  exhibit  him  entirely 
liquefied  and  showered  into  space ;  it  leaves  him  his  legs  for 
the  taking  of  further  steps.  Dudley,  standing  on  the  platform 
of  Nesta's  train,  one  half  minute  too  late,  according  to  his 
desire  before  he  put  himself  in  motion,  was  as  wildly  torn 
as  the  vapour  shredded  streaming  to  fingers  and  threads  off 
the  upright  columnar  shot  of  the  shriek  from  the  boiler. 
He  wished  every  mad  antagonism  to  his  wishes :  that  he 
might  see  her,  be  blind  to  her ;  embrace,  discard ;  heal  his 
wound,  and  tear  it  wider.  He  thanked  her  for  the  grossness 
of  an  offence  precluding  excuses.  He  was  aware  of  a 
glimmer  of  advocacy  in  the  very  grossness.  He  conjured-up 
her  features,  and  they  said,  her  innocence  was  the  sinner; 
they  scoffed  at  him  for  the  dupe  he  was  willing  to  be.  Sho 
had  enigma's  mouth,  with  the  eyes  of  morning. 


836  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

More  than  most  girls,  she  was  the  girl- Sphinx  to  him: 
because  of  her  having  ideas — or  what  he  deemed  ideas.  She 
struck  a  toneing  warmth  through  his  intelligence,  not 
dissimilar  to  the  livelier  circulation  of  the  blood  in  the 
frame  breathing  mountain  air.  She  really  helped  him, 
incited  him  to  go  along  with  this  windy  wild  modern  time 
more  cheerfully,  if  not  quite  hopefully.  For  she  had  been 
the  book  of  Romance  Vie  despised  when  it  appeared  as  a 
printed  volume :  and  which  might  have  educated  the  young 
man  to  read  some  among  our  riddles  in  the  book  of  humanity. 
The  white  he  was  ready  to  take  for  silver :  the  black  were 
all  black  ;  the  spotted  had  received  corruption's  label.  Her 
youthful  French  governess  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  was  also 
peculiarly  enigmatic  at  the  mouth :  conversant,  one  might 
expect,  with  the  disintegrating  literature  of  her  country. 
In  public,  the  two  talked  of  St.  Louis.  One  of  them  in 
secret  visits  a  Mrs.  Marsett.  The  South weare  women,  the 
Heniien  women,  and  Lady  Evelina  Eeddish,  were  artless 
candid  creatures  in  their  early  days,  not  transgressing  in  a 
glance.  Lady  Grace  Halley  had  her  fit  of  the  devotional 
previous  to  marriage.  No  girl  known  to  Dudley  by  report 
or  acquaintance  had  committed  so  scandalous  an  indiscretion 
as  Miss  Radnor's :  it  pertained  to  the  insolently  vile. 

And  on  that  ground,  it  started  the  voluble  defence.  For 
certain  suspected  things  will  dash  suspicion  to  the  rebound, 
when  they  are  very  dark.  As  soon  as  the  charge  against 
her  was  moderated,  the  defence  expired.  He  heard  the 
world  delivering  its  judgement  upon  her;  and  he  sorrow- 
fully acquiesced.     She  passed  from  him. 

When  she  was  cut  off,  she  sang  him  in  the  distance  a 
remembered  saying  of  hers,  with  the  full  melody  of  her 
voice.  One  day,  treating  of  modern  Pessimism,  he  had 
draped  a  cadaverous  view  of  our  mortal  being  in  a  quotation 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  Philosopher  Emperor:  'To  set  one's 
love  upon  the  swallow  is  a  futility.'  And  she,  weighing  it, 
nodded,  and  replied :  "  May  not  the  pleasure  for  us  remain 
if  we  set  our  love  upon  the  beauty  of  the  swallow's  flight? " 

There  was,  for  a  girl,  a  bit  of  idea,  real  idea,  in  that: 
meauing,  of  course,  the  picture  we  are  to  have  of  the  bird's 
wings  in  motion; — it  has  often  been  admired.  Oh!  not 
much  of  an  idea  in  itself: — feminine  and  vague.  But  it  was 
pertinent,  opportune;  in  this  way  she  stimulated. 


OLD   LAMPS    FOR    LIGHTING   A    DARKNESS.  837 

And  the  girl  who  could  think  it,  and  call  on  a  Mrs. 
Marsett,  was  of  the  class  of  mixtures  properly  to  be  handed 
over  to  chemical  experts  for  analysis  ! 

She  had  her  aspirations  on  behalf  of  her  sex  :  she  and 
Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  discussed  them  ;  women  were  to  do 
"this,  do  that : — necessarily  a  means  of  instructing  a  girl  to 
learn  what  they  did  do.  If  the  lower  part  of  her  face  had 
been  as  reassuring  to  him  as  the  upper,  he  might  have  put 
a  reluctant  faith  in  the  puremindedness  of  these  aspirations, 
without  reverting  to  her  origin,  and  also  to  recent  rumours 
of  her  father  and  Lady  Grace  Halley.  As  it  was,  he  inquired 
of  the  cognizant,  whether  an  intellectual  precocity,  devoted 
by  preference  to  questions  aifecting  the  state  of  women,  did 
not  rather  more  than  suggest  the  existence  of  urgent  senses 
likewise.  She,  a  girl  under  twenty,  had  an  interest  in 
public  matters,  and  she  called  on  a  Mrs.  Marsett.  To  plead 
her  simplicity,  was  to  be  absolutely  ignorant  of  her. 

He  neighboured  sagacity  when  he  pointed  that  interroga- 
tion relating  to  Nesta's  precociousness  of  the  intelligence. 
For,  as  they  say  in  dactylomancy,  the  '  psychical '  of  women 
are  not  disposed  in  their  sensitive  early  days  to  dwell  upon 
the  fortunes  of  their  sex:  a  thought  or  two  turns  them 
facing  away,  with  the  repugnant  shiver.  They  worship  at 
a  niche  in  the  wall.  They  cannot  avoid  imputing  some 
share  of  foulness  to  them  that  are  for  scouring  the  chamber; 
and  the  civilized  male,  keeping  his  own  chamber  locked, 
quite  shares  their  pale  taper's  view.  The  full-blooded  to 
the  finger-tips,  on  the  other  hand,  are  likely  to  be  drawn  to 
the  subject,  by  noble  inducement  as  often  as  by  base  :  Nature 
at  flood  being  the  cause  in  either  instance.  This  young 
Nature  of  the  good  and  the  bad,  is  the  blood  which  runs  to 
power  of  heart  as  well  as  to  thirsts  of  the  flesh.  Then  have 
men  to  sound  themselves,  to  discover  how  much  of  Nature 
their  abstract  honourable  conception  or  representative  eidolon 
of  young  women  will  bear  without  going  to  pieces;  and  it 
will  not  be  much,  unless  they  shall  have  taken  instruction 
from  the  poet's  pen : — for  a  view  possibly  of  Nature  at  work 
to  cast  the  slough,  when  they  see  her  writhing  as  in  her 
ugliest  old  throes.  If  they  have  learnt  of  Nature's  priest  to 
respect  her,  they  will  less  distrust  those  rare  daugnters  of 
hers  who  are  moved  by  her  warmth  to  lift  her  out  of  slime. 
It  is  by  her  own  live  warmth  that  it  has  to  be  done  :  cold 

z 


338  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

worship  at  a  niche  in  the  wall  will  not  do  it.- -Well,  there 
is  an  index,  for  the  enlargement  of  your  charity. 

But  facts  were  Dudley's  teachers.  Physically,  morally, 
mentally,  he  read  the  world  through  facts ; — that  is  to  say, 
through  the  facts  he  encountered  :  and  he  was  in  consequence 
foredoomed  to  a  succession  of  bumps;  all  the  heavier  from 
his  being,  unlike  the  horned  kind,  not  unimpressible  by  the 
hazy  things  outside  his  experience.  Even  at  his  darkest 
over  Nesta,  it  was  his  indigestion  of  the  misconduct  of  her 
parents,  which  denied  to  a  certain  still  small  advocate  within 
him  the  right  to  raise  a  voice  :  that  good  fellow  struck  the 
attitude  for  pleading,  and  had  to  be  silent;  for  he  was 
instinct ;  at  best  a  stammering  speaker  in  the  Court  of  the 
wigged  Facts.  Instinct  of  this  Nesta  Kadnor's  character 
would  have  said  a  brave  word,  but  for  her  deeds  bearing 
witness  to  her  inheritance  of  a  lawlessly  adventurous 
temperament. 

What  to  do  ?  He  was  no  nearer  to  an  answer  when  the 
wintry  dusk  had  fallen  on  the  promenading  crowds.  To  do 
nothing,  is  the  wisdom  of  those  who  have  seen  fools  perish. 
Facts  had  not  taught  him,  that  the  doing  nothing,  for  a 
length  of  days  after  the  first  shock  he  sustained,  was  the 
reason  of  how  it  came  that  Nesta  knitted  closer  her  acquain- 
tance with  the  *  agreeable  lady '  she  mentioned  in  her  letter 
to  Cronidge.  Those  excellent  counsellors  of  a  mercantile 
community  gave  him  no  warnings,  that  the  'masterly 
inactive'  parr,  so  greatly  esteemed  by  him  for  the  conduct 
of  public  affairs,  might  be  perilous  in  dealings  with  a  vivid 
girl :  nor  a  hint,  that  when  facts  continue  undigested,  it  is 
because  the  sensations  are  as  violent  as  hysterical  females 
to  block  them  from  the  understanding.  His  Robin  Good- 
fellow  instinct  tried  to  be  .serviceable  at  a  crux  of  his 
meditations,  where  Edith  Averst's  consumptive  brothers 
waved  faded  hands  at  her  chances  of  inheriting  largely. 
Superb  for  the  chances:  but  what  of  her  offspring?  And 
the  other  was  a  girl  such  as  the  lusty  Dame  Dowager  of 
fighting  ancestors  would  have  signalled  to  the  heir  of  the 
House's  honours  for  the  perpetuation  of  his  race.  No  doubt : 
and  the  venerable  Dame  (beautiful  in  her  old-lace  frame,  or 
say  foliage,  of  the  Ages  backward,  temp :  Ed  :  III.)  inflated 
him  with  a  thought  of  her:  and  his  readings  in  modern 
books  on   heredity,  pure  blood,  phy>ical  regeneration,  pro- 


OLD   LAMPS   FOR   LIGHTING   A   DARKNESS.  839 

notmced  approval  of  Nesta  Radnor :  and  thereupon  instinct 
opened  mouth  to  speak  ;  and  a  lockjaw  seized  it  under  that 
scowl  of  his  presiding  mistrust  of  Nature. 

He  clung  to  his  mistrust  the  more  because  of  a  warning 
he  had  from  the  silenced  natural  voice :  somewhat  as  we 
may  behold  how  the  Conservatism  of  a  Class,  in  a  world  of 
all  the  evidences  showing  that  there  is  no  stay  to  things, 
comes  of  the  intuitive  discernment  of  its  finality.  His  mis- 
trust was  his  own ;  and  Nesta  was  not ;  not  yet ;  though  a 
step  would  make  her  his  own.  Instinct  prompting  to  the 
step,  was  a  worthless  adviser.     It  spurred  him,  nevertheless. 

He  called  at  the  Club  for  his  cousin  Southweare,  with 
whom  he  was  not  in  sympathy ;  and  had  information  that, 
Southweare  said,  "  made  the  girl  out  all  right."  Girls  in 
these  days  do  things, which  the  sainted  stay-at-homes  pre- 
ceding them  would  not  have  dreamed  of  doing.  Something 
had  occurred,  relating  to  Major  Worrell :  he  withdrew  Miss 
Radnor's  name,  acknowledged  himself  mistaken  or  amended 
his  report  of  her,  in  some  way,  not  quite  intelligible.  Dudley 
was  accosted  by  Simeon  Fenellan  ;  subsequently  by  Dartrey. 
There  was  gossip  over  the  latter  gentleman's  having  been 
up  before  the  magistrate,  talk  of  a  queer  kind  of  stick,  and 
Dartrey  said,  laughing,  to  Simeon  :  "  Rather  lucky  I  bled  the 
rascal ; " — whatever  the  meaning.  She  nursed  one  of  her 
adorations  for  this  man,  who  had  yesterday,  apparently,  joined 
in  a  street-fray;  so  she  partook  of  the  stain  of  the  turbid 
defacing  all  these  disorderly  people. 

At  his  hotel,  at  breakfast  the  next  morning,  a  newspaper 
furnished  an  account  of  Captain  Dartrey  Fenellan's  partici- 
pation in  the  strife,  after  mention  of  him  as  nephew  of  the 
Earl  of  Clanconan,  "  now  a  visitor  to  our  town ; "  and  his 
deeds  were  accordant  with  his  birth.  Such  writing  was 
enough  to  send  Dudley  an  eager  listener  to  Colney  Durance. 
What  a  people ! 

Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan's  card  compelled  Dudley  presently 
to  receive  him. 

Dartrey,  not  debarred  by  considerations,  that  an  allusion 
to  Miss  Radnor  could  be  conveyed  only  in  the  most  delicately 
obscure  manner,  spared  him  no  more  than  the  plain  English 
of  his  relations  with  her.  Requested  to  come  to  the  Club,  at 
a  certain  hour  of  the  afternoon,  that  he  might  hear  Major 
Worrell's  personal   contradiction  of  scandal   involving  the 


840  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

young  lady's  name,  together  with  his  apology,  etc. ;  Dudley 
declined :  and  he  was  obliged  to  do  it  curtly ;  words  were 
wanting.  They  are  hard  to  find  for  wounded  sentiments 
rendered  complex  by  an  infusion  of  policy.  His  present 
mood,  with  the  something  new  to  digest,  held  the  going  to 
Major  Worrell  a  wrong  step ;  he  behaved  as  if  the  speaking 
to  Dartrey  Fenellan  pledged  him  hardly  less.  And  besides 
he  had  a  physical  abhorrence,  under  dictate  of  moral  repro- 
bation, of  the  broad-shouldered  sinewy  man,  whose  look  of 
wiry  alertness  pictured  the  previous  day's  gory  gutters. 

Dartrey  set  sharp  eyes  on  him  for  an  instant,  bowed,  and 
went. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVI. 

NESTA    AND    HER    FATHER. 

The  day  of  Nesta's  return  was  one  of  a  number  of  late  when 
Victor  was  robbed  of  his  walk  Westward  by  Lady  Grace 
Halley,  who  seduced  his  politeness  with  her  various  forms 
of  blandishment  to  take  a  seat  in  her  carriage ;  and  she 
was  a  practical  speaker  upon  her  quarter  of  the  world 
when  she  had  him  there.  Perhaps  she  was  right  in  saying 
— though  she  had  no  right  to  say — that  he  and  she  together 
might  have  the  world  under  their  feet.  It  was  one  of  those 
irritating  suggestions  which  expedite  us  up  to  a  bald  ceiling, 
only  to  make  us  feel  the  gas-bladder's  tight  extension  upon 
emptiness.  It  moved  him  to  examine  the  poor  value  of  his 
aim,  by  tying  him  to  the  contemptible  means.  One  estimate 
involved  the  other,  whichever  came  first.  Somewhere  he 
had  an  idea,  that  would  lift  and  cleanse  all  degradations. 
But  it  did  seem  as  if  he  were  not  enjoying:  things  pleasant 
enough  in  the  passage  of  them  were  barren,  if  not  prickly, 
in  the  retrospect. 

He  sprang  out  at  the  head  of  the  park,  for  a  tramp  round 
it,  in  the  gloom  of  the  girdle  of  lights,  to  recover  his 
deadened  relish  of  the  thin  phantasmal  strife  to  win  an  in- 
tangible prize.  His  dulled  physical  system  asked,  as  with 
the  sensations  of  a  man  at  the  start  from  sleep  in  the  hurry- 
ing giip  of  steam,  what  on  earth  he  wanted  to  get,  and  what 


NESTA   AND    HER   FATHER.  84l 

was  the  substance  of  his  gains  :  what !  if  other  than  a  pre- 
cipitous intimacy,  a  deep  crumbling  over  deeper,  with  a  little 
woman  amusing  him  in  remarks  of  a  whimsical  nudity  ; 
hardly  more.  Nay,  not  more!  he  said;  and  at  the  end  of 
twenty  paces,  he  saw  much  more;  the  campaign  gathered 
a  circling  suggestive  brilliancy,  like  the  lamps  about  the 
winter  park;  the  Society,  lured  with  glitter,  hooked  by 
greed,  composed  a  ravishing  picture ;  the  little  woman  was 
esteemed  as  a  serviceable  lieutenant;  and  her  hand  was  a 
small  s  »ft  one,  agreeable  to  fondle — and  avaunt !  But  so  it 
is  in  war :  we  must  pay  for  our  allies.  What  if  it  had  been, 
that  he  and  she  together,  with  their  united  powers  .  .  .  ? 
He  dashed  the  silly  vision  aside,  as  vainer  than  one  of  the 
bubble-empires  blown  by  boys;  and  it  broke,  showing  no 
heart  in  it.     His  heart  was  Nataly's. 

Let  Colney  hint  his  worst ;  Nataly  bore  the  strain,  always 
did  bear  any  strain  coming  in  the  round  of  her  duties  :  and 
if  she  would  but  walk,  or  if  she  danced  at  parties,  she  would 
sea  terthe  fits  of  despondency  besetting  the  phlegmatic,  like 
this  day's  breeze  the  morning  fug ;  or  as  he  did  with  two 
minutes  of  the  stretch  of  legs. 

Full  of  the  grandeur  of  that  black  pit  of  the  benighted 
London,  with  its  ocean- voice  of  the  heart  at  beat  along  the 
lighted  outer  ring,  Victor  entered  at  his  old  door  of  the  two 
houses  he  had  knocked  into  one  : — a  surprise  for  Fredi ! — 
and  heard  that  his  girl  had  arrived  in  the  morning. 

"  And  could  no  more  endure  her  absence  from  her  Mammy 
O  !  "  The  songful  satirical  line  spouted  in  him,  to  be  flung 
at  his  girl,  as  he  ran  upstairs  to  the  boudoir  off  the  drawing- 
room. 

He  peeped  in.  It  was  dark.  Sensible  of  presences,  he 
gradually  discerned  a  thick  blot  along  the  couch  to  the  riiiht 
of  the  door,  and  he  drew  near.  Two  were  lying  folded 
together  ;  mother  and  daughter.  He  bent  over  them.  His 
hand  was  taken  and  pressed  by  Fredi's  ;  she  spoke ;  she  said 
tenderly  :  "  Father."  Neither  of  the  two  made  a  movement. 
3£e  heard  the  shivering  rise  of  a  sob,  that  fell.  The  dry  sob 
going  to  the  waste  breath  was  Nataly's.  His  girl  did  not 
speak  again. 

He  left  them.  He  had  no  thought  until  he  stood  in  his 
dressing-room,  when  he  said  "  Good  !  "  For  those  two  must 
have  been  lying  folded  together  during  the  greater  part  of 


842  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

the  day :  and  it  meant,  that  the  mother's  heart  had  opened ; 
the  girl  knew.  Her  tone  :  *  Father,"  sweet,  was  heavy,  too, 
with  the  darkness  it  came  out  of. 

So  she  knew.  Good.  He  clasped  them  both  in  his  heart ; 
tempering  his  pity  of  those  dear  ones  with  the  thought,  that 
they  were  of  the  sex  which  finds  enjoyment  in  a  day  of  the 
mutual  tear;  and  envying  them;  he  strained  at  a  richness 
appearing  in  the  sobs  of  their  close  union. 

All  of  his  girl's  loving  soul  flew  to  her  mother ;  and 
naturally  ! 

She  would  not  be  harsh  on  her  father.  She  would  say  : — 
he  loved !  And  true  :  he  did  love,  he  does  love ;  loves  no 
woman  but  the  dear  mother. 

He  flicked  a  short  wring  of  the  hand  having  taken  pressure 
from  an  alien  woman's  before  Fredi  pressed  it,  and  absolved 
himself  in  the  act ;  thinking,  How  little  does  a  woman  know 
how  true  we  can  be  to  her  when  we  smell  at  a  flower  here 
and  there ! — There  they  are,  stationary;  women  the  flowers, 
we  the  bee ;  and  we  are  faithful  in  our  seeming  volatility ; 
faithful  to  the  hive ! — And  if  women  are  to  be  stationary, 
the  reasoning  is  nor.  so  bad.  Funny,  however,  if  they  here 
and  there  imitatively  spread  a  wing,  and  treat  men  in  that 
way?  It  is  a  breach  of  the  convention;  we  pay  them  our 
homage,  that  they  may  serve  as  flowers,  not  to  be  volatile 
tempters.  Nataly  never  had  been  one  of  the  sort:  Lady 
Grace  was.  No  necessity  existed  for  compelling  the  world 
to  bow  to  Lady  Grace,  while  on  behalf  of  his  Nataly  he  had 
to  .  .  .  Victor  closed  the  curtain  over  a  gulf  revealed  by  an 
invocation  of  Nature,  and  showing  the  tremendous  force  he 
partook  of  so  largely,  in  her  motive  elements  of  the  devourer. 
Horrid  to  behold,  when  we  need  a  gracious  presentation  of 
the  circumstances.  She  is  a  splendid  power  for  as  long  as 
we  confine  her  between  the  banks :  but  she  has  a  passion  to 
discover  cracks ;  and  if  we  give  her  headway,  she  will  find 
one,  and  drive  at  it,  and  be  through,  uproarious  in  her 
primitive  licentiousness,  unless  we  labour  body  and  soul  like 
Dutchmen  at  the  dam.  Here  she  was,  and  not  desired, 
almost  detested!  Nature  dettsted!  It  had  come  about 
through  the  battle  for  Nataly;  chiefly  through  Mrs.  Bur- 
man's  tenacious  hold  of  the  filmy  thread  she  took  for  life 
and  was  enabled  to  use  as  a  means  for  the  perversion  besides 
bar  to  the  happiness  of  creatures  really  living.     We  may 


NESTA  AND  HER  FATHER.  843 

well  marvel  at  the  Fates,  and  tell  them  they  are  not  moral 
agent6 ! 

Victor's  reflections  came  across  Colney  Durance,  who 
tripped  and  stopped  them. 

Dressed  with  his  customary  celerity,  he  waited  for  Nesta, 
to  show  her  the  lighted  grand  double  drawing-room  :  a 
further  proof  of  how  Fortune  favoured  him: — she  was  to  be 
told,  how  he  one  day  expressed  a  wish  for  greater  space,  and 
was  informed  on  the  next,  that  the  neighbour  house  was  being 
vacated,  and  the  day  following  he  was  in  treaty  for  the  pur- 
chase of  it ;  returning  from  Tyrol,  he  found  his  place  habitable. 

Nesta  came.  Her  short  look  at  him  was  fond,  her  voice 
not  faltering;  she  laid  her  hand  under  his  arm  and  walked 
round  the  spacious  room,  praising  the  general  design, 
admiring  the  porcelain,  the  ferns,  friezes,  hangings,  and  the 
grand  piano,  the  ebony  inlaid  music-stands,  the  fire-giates 
and  plaques,  the  ottomans,  the  tone  of  neutral  colour  that,  as 
in  sound,  muted  splendour.  He  told  her  it  was  a  reception 
night,  with  music :  and  added :  "  I  miss  my  .  .  .  seen  any- 
body lately?" 

"  Mr.  Sowerby  ?  "  said  she.  "  He  was  to  have  escorted  me 
back.     He  may  have  overslept  himself." 

She  spoke  it  plainly;  when  speaking  of  the  dear  good 
ladies,  she  set  a  gentle  humour  at  play,  and  comforted  him, 
as  she  intended,  with  a  souvenir  of  her  lively  spirit  wanting 
only  in  the  manner  of  gaiety. 

He  allowed,  that  she  could  not  be  quite  gay. 

More  deeply  touched  the  next  minute,  he  felt  in  her  voice, 
in, her  look,  in  her  phrasing  of  speech,  an  older,  much  older 
daughter  than  the  Fredi  whom  he  had  conducted  to  Moors- 
edge.     "  Kiss  me,"  he  said. 

She  turned  to  him  full-front,  and  kissed  his  right  cheek 
and  left,  and  his  forehead,  saying:  "My  love!  my  papa! 
my  own  dear  dada !  "  all  the  words  of  her  girlhood  in  her 
new  sedateness ;  and  smiling :  like  the  moral  crepuscular  of 
a  sunlighted  day  down  a  not  totally  inanimate  Sunday 
London  street. 

He  strained  her  to  his  breast.     "  Mama  soon  be  here  ?  " 

«'  Soon." 

That  was  well.  And  possibly  at  the  present  moment 
applying,  with  her  cunning  hand,  the  cosmetics  and  powders 
he  |  could  excuse  for  a  concealment  of  the  traces  of  grief. 


544  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Satisfied  in  "being  a  superficial  observer,  lie  did  not  spy  to 
see  more  than  the  world  would  when  Nataly  entered  the 
dining-room  at  the  quiet  family  dinner.  She  performed  her 
part  for  his  comfort,  though  not  prattling;  and  he  missed 
his  Fredi's  delicious  warble  of  the  pra'tle  running  rill-like 
over  our  daily  humdrum.  Simeon  Fenellan  would  lave 
helped.  Then  suddenly  came  enlivenment :  a  recollection 
of  news  in  the  morning's  paper.  "No  harm  before  Fredi, 
my  dear.  She's  a  young  woman  now.  And  no  harm,  so  to 
speak — at  least,  not  against  the  Sanfredini.  She  has  donned 
her  name  again,  and  a  villa  on  Como,  leaving  her  duque  ; — 
paragraph  from  a  Milanese  musical  Journal;  no  particulars. 
Now,  mark  me,  we  shall  have  her  at  Lakelands  in  the 
Summer.     If  only  we  could  have  her  now!  " 

"  It  would  be  a  pleasure,"  said  Nataly.  Her  heart  had  a 
blow  in  the  thought,  that  a  lady  of  this  kind  would  create 
the  pleasure  by  nut  bringing  criticism. 

"The  godmother?"  he  glistened  upon  Nesta. 

She  gave  him  low  half-notes  of  the  little  blue  butterfly's 
imitation  of  the  superb  contralto ;  and  her  hand  and  head  at 
turn  to  hint  the  theatrical  operatic  attitude. 

"Delicious!"  he  cried,  his  eyelids  were  bedewed  at  the 
vision  of  the  three  of  them  planted  in  the  past;  and  here, 
again,  out  of  the  dark  wood,  where  something  had  required 
to  be  said,  and  had  been  said;  and  all  was  happily  over, 
owing  to  the  goodness  and  sweetness  of  the  two  dear 
innocents ; — whom  heaven  ble>s  !  Jealousy  of  their  naturally 
closer  heart-at-heart,  had  not  a  whisper  for  him ;  part  of 
their  goodness  and  sweetness  was  felt  to  be  in  the  not 
excluding  him. 

Nesta  engaged  to  sin£  one  of  the  old  duets  with  her  mother. 
She  .saw  lier  mother's  breast  lift  in  a  mechanical  effort  to  try 
imaginary  notes,  as  if  doubtful  of  her  capacity,  more  at  home 
in  the  dumb  deep  sigh  they  fell  to.  Her  mother's  heroism 
made  her  a  sacred  woman  to  the  thoughts  of  the  girl,  over- 
coming wonderment  at  the  extreme  subinissiveness. 

!5he  put  a  screw  on  her  mind  to  perceive  the  rational 
object  there  might  be  for  causing  her  mother  to  go  through 
tortures  in  receiving  and  visiting;  and  she  was  arrested  by 
the  louder  question,  whether  she  could  think  such  a  man  as 
her  father  irrational. 

People  with  resounding  names,  waves  of  a  steady  stream, 


NESTA    AND    HER   FATHER.  345 

were  announced  by  Arlington,  just  as  in  the  days,  that  seemed 
remote,  before  she  went  to  Moorsedge ;  only  they  were  more 
numerous,  and  some  of  the  titles  had  ascended  a  stage. 
There  were  great  lords,  there  were  many  grt  at  ladies ;  and 
Lady  Grace  Halley  shuffling  amid  them,  like  a  silken  shimmer 
in  voluminous  robes.  They  crowded  about  their  host  where 
he  stood.  "  He  is  their  Law  !  "  Colney  said,  speaking  unin- 
telligibly, in  the  absence  of  the  Simeon  Fenellan  regretted 
so  loudly  by  Mr.  Beaves  Urmsing.  They  had  an  air  of 
worshipping,  and  he  of  swimming.  There  were  also  City 
magnates,  and  Lakelands'  neighbours :  the  gentleman  repre- 
senting Pride  of  Port,  Sir  Abraham  Quatley;  and  Colonel 
Corfe;  Sir  Eodwell  and  Lady  Blachington;  Mrs.  Fanning; 
Mr.  Caddis.  Few  young  men  and  maids  were  seen.  Dr. 
John  Cormyn  came  without  his  wife,  not  mentioning  her. 
Mrs.  Peter  Yatt  touched  the  notes  for  voices  at  the  piano. 
Priscilla  Graves  was  a  vacancy,  and  likewise  the  Kev. 
Septimus  Barmby.  Peridon  and  Catkin,  and  Mr.  Pempton 
took  their  usual  places.  There  was  no  fluting.  A  famous 
Canadian  lady  was  the  principal  singer.  A  Galician  violinist, 
zig-zagging  extreme  extensions  and  contractions  of  his 
corporeal  frame  in  execution,  and  described  by  Colney  as 
"Paganini  on  a  wall,"  failed  to  supplant  Durandarte  in 
Nesta' s  memory.  She  was  asked  by  Lady  Grace  for  the 
latest  of  Dudley.  Sir  Abraham  Quatley  named  him  with 
handsome  emphasis.  Great  dames  caressed  her;  openly 
approved ;  shadowed  the  future  place  among  them. 

Victor  alluded  at  night  to  Mrs.  John  Cormyn's  absence. 
He  said:  "A  homoeopathic  doctor's  wife!"  nothing  more; 
and  by  that  little,  he  prepared  Nesta  for  her  mother's 
explanation.  The  great  London  people,  ignorant  or  not, 
were  caught  by  the  strong  tide  he  created,  and  carried  on  it. 
But  there  was  a  bruiting  of  the  secret  among  their  set ;  and 
the  one  to  fall  away  from  her,  Nataly  marvellingly  named 
Mrs.  John  Cormyn;  whose  marriage  was  of  her  making. 
JShe  did  not  disapprove  Priscilla's  behaviour.  Priscilla  had 
come  to  her  and,  protesting  affection,  had  openly  stated,  that 
she  required  time  and  retirement  to  recover  her  proper 
feelings.  Nataly  smiled  a  melancholy  criticism  of  an  incon- 
sequent or  capricious  woman,  in  relating  to  Nesta  certain 
observations  Priscilla  had  dropped  upon  poor  faithful  Mr. 
Pempton,  because  of  his  concealment  from  her  of  his  know- 


346  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS*. 

ledge  of  things :  for  this  faithful  gentleman  had  been  one  of 
the  few  not  ignorant.    The  rumour  was  traceable  to  the  City. 

"  Mother,  we  walk  on  planks,"  Ne.sta  said. 

Nataly  answered  :  "  You  will  grow  used  to  it." 

Her  mother's  habitual  serenity  in  martyrdom  was  deceiving. 
Nesta  had  a  transient  suspicion,  that  siie  had  grown,  from 
use,  to  like  the  whirl  of  company,  for  oblivion  in  the  excite- 
ment;  and  as  her  remembrance  of  her  own  station  among 
the  crowding  people  was  a  hot  flush,  the  diiference  of  their 
feelings  chilled  her. 

Nataly  said:  "It  is  to-morrow  night  again;  we  do  not 
rest."  She  smiled ;  and  at  once  the  girl  read  woman's 
armour  on  the  dear  face,  and  asked  herself,  Could  I  be  so 
brave?  The  question  following  was  a  speechless  wave,  that 
surged  at  her  father.  She  tried  to  fathom  the  scheme  he 
entertained.  The  attempt  obscured  her  conception  of  the 
man  he  was.  She  could  not  grasp  him,  being  too  young  for 
knowing,  that  young  heads  cannot  obtain  a  critical  hold 
upon  one  whom  they  see  grandly  succeeding :  it  is  the  sun's 
brilliance  to  their  eyes. 

Mother  and  daughter  slept  together  that  night,  and  their 
embrace  was  their  world. 

Nesta  delighted  her  father  the  next  day  by  walking  beside 
him  into  the  City,  as  far  as  the  end  of  the  Embankment, 
where  the  carriage  was  in  waiting  with  her  maid  to  bring 
her  back;  and  at  his  mere  ejaculation  of  a  wish,  the  hardy 
girl  drove  down  in  the  afternoon  for  the  walk  home  with 
him.  Lady  Grace  Halley  was  at  the  office.  "I  am  an 
incorrigible  Stock  Exchange  gambler,"  she  said. 

"Only,"  Victor  bade  her  beware,  "Mines  are  undulating 
in  movement,  and  their  heights  are  a  preparation  for  their 
going  down." 

She  said  she  "  liked  a  swing." 

Nesta  looked  at  them  in  turn. 

The  day  after  and  the  day  after,  Lady  Grace  was  present. 
She  made  play  with  Dudley's  name. 

This  coming  into  the  City  daily  of  a  girl,  for  the  sake  of 
walking  back  in  winter  weather  with  her  father,  struck  her 
as  ambiguous:  either  a  jealous  foolish  mother's  device,  or 
that  of  a  weak  man  beating  about  for  protection.  But  the 
woman  of  the  positive  world  soon  read  to  the  contrary; 
helped  a  little  by  the  man,  no  doubt.     She  read  rather  too 


NESTA  AND   HER   FATHER.  847 

much  to  the  contrary,  and  took  the  pedestrian  girl  for  perfect 
simplicity  in  her  tastes,  when  Nesta  had  so  far  grown 
watchful  as  to  feel  relieved  by  the  lady's  departure.  Her 
mother,  without  sympathy  for  the  lady,  was  too  great  of  soul 
for  jealousy.  Victor  had  his  Nataly  before  him  at  a  hint 
from  Lady  Grace :  and  he  went  somewhat  further  than  the 
exact  degree  when  affirming,  that  Nataly  could  not  scheme, 
and  was  incapable  of  suspecting. — Nataly  could  perceive 
things  with  a  certain  accuracy :  she  would  not  stoop  to  a 
meanness. — "Plot?  Nataly?"  said  he,  and  shrugged.  In 
fact,  the  void  of  plot,  drama,  shuffle  of  excitement,  reflected 
upon  Nataly.  He  might  have  seen  as  tragic  as  ever  dripped 
on  Stage,  had  he  looked. 

But  the  walk  Westward  with  his  girl,  together  with 
pride  in  a  daughter  who  clove  her  way  through  all  weathers, 
won  his  heart  to  exultation.  He  told  her:  "Fredi  does  her 
dada  so  much  good ; "  not  telling  her  in  what,  or  opening 
any  passage  to  the  mystery  of  the  man  he  was.  She  was 
trying  to  be  a  student  of  life,  with  her  eyes  down  upon  hard 
earth,  despite  of  her  winged  young  head ;  she  would  have 
compassed  him  better  had  he  dilated  in  sublime  fashion; 
but  he  baffled  her  perusal  of  a  man  of  power  by  the  simple- 
ness  of  his  enjoyment  of  small  things  coming  in  his  way  ; — 
the  lighted  shops,  the  crowd,  emergence  from  the  crowd, 
or  the  meeting  near  midwinter  of  a  soft  warm  wind  along 
the  Embankment,  and  dark  Thames  magnificently  coroneted 
over  his  grimy  flow.  There  is  no  grasping  of  one  who 
quickens  us. 

His  flattery  of  his  girl,  too,  restored  her  broken  feeling 
of  personal  value;  it  permeated  her  nourishingly  from  the 
natural  breath  of  him  that  it  was. 

At  times  he  touched  deep  in  humaneness ;  and  he  sat  her 
heart  leaping  on  the  flash  of  a  thought  to  lay  it  bare,  with 
the  secret  it  held,  for  his  help.  That  was  a  dream.  She 
could  more  easily  have  uttered  the  words  to  Captain  Dartrey, 
after  her  remembered  abashing  holy  tremour  of  the  vision 
of  doing  it  and  casting  herself  on  noblest  man's  compassionate- 
ness;  and  her  imagined  thousand  emotions;  — a  rolling  music 
within  her,  a  wreath  of  cloud-glory  in  her  sky  ; — which  had, 
as  with  virgins  it  may  be,  plighted  her  body  to  him  for  sheer 
urgency  of  soul ;  drawn  her  by  a  single  unwitting-to-brain, 
conscious-in-blood,  shy  curl  outward  of  the  sheathing  leaf 


348  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

to  the  flowering  of  woman  to  him  ;  even  to  the  shore  of  that 
strange  sea,  where  the  maid  stands  choosing  this  one  man 
for  her  destiny,  as  in  a  trance.  So  are  these  young  ones 
unfolded,  shade  by  shade;  and  a  shade  is  all  the  diiference 
with  them  ;  they  can  teach  the  poet  to  marvel  at  the  immen- 
sity of  vitality  in  '  the  shadow  of  a  shade.' 

Her  father  shut  the  glimpse  of  a  possible  speaking  to  him 
of  Mrs.  Marsett,  with  a  renewal  of  his  eulogistic  allusions 
to  Dudley  Sowerby  :  the  "  perfect  gentleman,  good  citizen ; " 
prospective  heir  to  an  earldom  besides.  She  bowed  to  Dudley's 
merits ;  she  read  off  the  honorific  pedi  mental  letters  of  a 
handsome  statue,  for  a  sign  to  herself  that  she  passed  it. 

She  was  unjust,  as  Victor  could  feel,  though  he  did  not 
know  how  coldly  unjust.  For  among  the  exorbitant  requisi- 
tions upon  their  fellow-creatures  made  by  the  young,  is  the 
demand,  that  they  be  definite  :  no  mercy  is  in  them  for  the 
transitional.  And  Dudley — and  it  was  under  her  influence, 
and  painfully,  not  ignobly — was  in  process  of  development : 
interesting  to  philosophers,  if  not  to  maidens. 

Yictor  accused  her  of  paying  too  much  heed  to  Colney 
Durance's  epigrams  upon  their  friends.  He  quite  joined 
with  his  English  world  in  its  opinion,  that  epigrams  are 
poor  squibs  when  they  do  not  come  out  of  great  guns. 
Epigrams  fired  at  a  venerable  nation,  are  surely  the  poorest 
of  popgun  paper  pellets.  The  English  kick  at  the  insolence, 
when  they  are  not  in  the  mood  for  pelleting  themselves,  or 
when  the  armed  Foreigner  is  overshadowing  and  bracing. 
Colney's  pretentious  and  laboured  Satiric  Prose  Epic  of  '  The 
Eiv^l  Tongues,'  particularly  offended  him,  as  being  a  clever 
aim  at  no  hitting ;  and  sustained  him,  inasmuch  as  it  was 
an  acid  friend's  collapse.  How  could  Colney  expect  his 
English  to  tolerate  such  a  spiteful  diatribe !  The  suicide  of 
Dr.  Bouthoin  at  San  Francisco  was  the  finishing  stroke  to 
the  chances  of  success  of  the  Serial; — although  we  are 
promised  splendid  evolutions  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Semhians; 
who,  after  brilliant  achievements  with  bat  and  ball,  abandons 
those  weapons  of  old  England's  modern  renown,  for  a  deter- 
mined wrestle  with  our  English  pronunciation  of  words,  and 
rescue  of  the  spelling  of  them  from  the  printer.  His  head- 
ache over  the  present  treatment  of  the  verb  *  To  bid,'  was 
a  quaint  beginning  for  one  who  had  soon  to  plead  before 
Japanese,    and   who    acknowledged   now  *'  in   contrition  of 


NESTA    AND    HER   FATHER.  849 

spirit,"  that  in  formerly  opposing  the  scheme  for  an  Academy, 
he  helped  to  the  handing  of  our  noble  language  to  the  rapid 
reporter  of  news  for  an  apathetic  public.  Further,  he  dis- 
covered in  astonishment  the  subordination  of  all  literary 
Americans  to  the  decrees  of  their  literary  authorities ; 
marking  a  Transatlantic  point  of  departure,  and  contrasting 
ominously  with  the  unruly  Islanders—4'  grunting  the  hig- 
gledy-piggledy of  their  various  ways,  in  all  the  porker's  gut- 
gamut  at  the  rush  to  the  trough."  After  a  week's  privation 
of  bat  and  ball,  he  is,  lighted  or  not,  a  gas-jet  of  satire  upon 
his  countrymen.  As  for  the  ■  pathetic  sublimity  of  the 
Funeral  of  Dr.  Bouthoin,'  Victor  inveighed  against  an 
impious  irony  in  the  overdose  of  the  pathos ;  and  the  same 
might  be  suspected  in  Britannia's  elegy  upon  him,  a  strain  of 
hot  eulogy  throughout.  Mr.  Semhians,  all  but  treasonably, 
calls  it,  Papboat  and  Brandy : — "  our  English  literary  diet 
of  the  day:"  stimulating  and  not  nourishing.  Britannia's 
mournful  anticipation,  that  ■  The  shroud  enwinding  this  my 
eon  is  mine!' — should  the  modern  generation  depart  from 
the  track  of  him  who  proved  himself  the  giant  in  mainly 
supporting  her  glory — was,  no  doubt,  a  high  pitch  of  the 
note  of  Conservatism.  But  considering,  that  Dr.  Bouthoin 
*'  committed  suicide  under  a  depression  of  mind  produced 
by  a  surfeit  of  unaccustomed  dishes,  upon  a  physical  system 
inspired  by  the  traditions  of  exercise,  and  no  longer  relieved 
by  the  practice  " — to  translate  from  Dr.  Gannius : — we  are 
again  at  war  with  the  writer's  reverential  tone,  and  we 
know  not  what  to  think  :  except,  that  Mr.  Durance  was  a 
Saturday  meat-market's  butcher  in  the  Satiric  Art. 

Nesta  found  it  pleasanter  to  see  him  than  to  hear  of  his 
work :  which,  to  her  present  feeling,  was  inhuman.  As 
little  as  our  native  public,  had  she  then  any  sympathy  for 
the  working  in  the  idea  :  she  wanted  throbs,  visible  aims, 
the  Christian  incarnate;  she  would  have  preferred  the  tale 
of  slaughter — periodically  invading  all  English  classes  as  a 
flush  from  the  undrained  lower,  Vikings  all— to  frigid  sterile 
Satire.  And  truly  it  is  not  a  fruit-bearing  rod.  Colney  had 
to  stand  on  the  defense  of  it  against  the  damsel's  charges. 
He  thought  the  use  of  the  rod,  while  expressing  profound 
regret  at  a  difference  of  opinion  between  him  and  those  noble 
heathens,  beneficial  for  boys ;  but  in  relation  to  their  seniors, 
and  particularly  for  old   gentlemen,  he   thought   that   the 


350  ONE    OF    OUB    CONQUERORS. 

sharpest  rod  to  cut  the  skin  was  the  sole  saving  of  them. 
Insensibility  to  Satire,  he  likened  to  the  hard-mouthed  horse; 
which  is  doomed  to  the  worser  thing  in  consequence.  And 
consequently  upon  the  lack  of  it,  and  of  training  to  appreciate 
it,  he  described  his  country's  male  venerables  as  being  dis- 
tinguishable from  annuitant  spinsters  only  in  presenting 
themselves  forked. 

"  He  is  unsuccessful  and  embittered,"  Victor  said  to  Nesta. 
"Colney  will  find  in  the  end,  that  he  has  lost  his  game  and 
soured  himself  by  never  making  concessions.  Here's  this 
absurd  Serial — it  fails,  of  course ;  and  then  he  has  to  say, 
it's  because  he  won't  tickle  his  English,  won't  enter  into  a 
*  frowzy  complicity  '  with  their  tastes." 

"But — I  think  of  Skepsey— honest  creatures  respect  Mr. 
Durance,  and  he  is  always  ready  to  help  them,"  said  Nesta. 

"  If  he  can  patronize." 

*'  Does  he  patronize  me,  dad  a?" 

"  You  are  one  of  his  exceptions.  Marry  a  title  and  live 
in  state — and  then  hear  him !  I  am  successful,  and  the 
result  of  it  is,  that  he  won't  acknowledge  wisdom  in  any- 
thing I  say  or  do ;  he  will  hardly  acknowledge  the  success. 
It  is  '  a  dirty  road  to  success,'  he  says.  So  that,  if  successful, 
I  must  have  rolled  myself  in  mire.  I  compelled  him  to 
admit  he  was  wrong  about  your  being  received  at  Moorsedge : 
a  bit  of  a  triumph  !  " 

Nesta's  walks  with  her  father  were  no  loss  of  her  to 
Nataly :  the  girl  came  back  to  her  bearing  so  fresh  and  so 
full  a  heart ;  and  her  father  was  ever  prouder  of  her :  he 
piesented  new  features  of  her  in  his  quotations  of  her  sayings, 
thoughtful  sayings.  "  I  declare  she  helps  one  to  think,"  he 
said.  "  It's  not  precocity;  it's  healthy  inquiry.  She  brings 
me  nearer  ideas  of  my  own,  not  yet  examined,  than  any  one 
else  does.     I  say,  what  a  wife  for  a  man  ! " 

"  She  takes  my  place  beside  you,  dear,  now  I  am  not  quite 
strong,"  said  Nataly.     "  You  have  not  seen  .  .  .  ?  " 

"Dudley  Sowerby?  He's  at  Oronidge,  I  believe.  His 
elder  brother's  in  a  bad  way.  Bad  business,  this  looking  to 
a  death." 

Nataly' s  eyes  revealed  a  similar  gulf. 

Let  it  be  cast  on  Society,  then  !  A  Society  opposing 
Nature  forces  us  to  these  murderous  looks  upon  impediments. 
But  what  of  a  Society  in  the  dance  with  Nature?     Victor 


NESTA    AND    HER    FATHEB.  851 

did  not  approve  of  that.  He  began,  under  the  influence  of 
Nesta's  companionship,  to  see  the  Goddess  Nature  there  is 
in  a  chastened  nature.  And  this  view  shook  the  curtain 
covering  his  lost  Idea.  He  felt  sure  he  should  grasp  it  soon 
and  enter  into  its  daylight :  a  muffled  voice  within  him  said, 
that  he  was  kept  waiting  to  do  so  by  the  inexplicable  tardi- 
ness of  a  certain  one  to  rise  ascending  to  her  spiritual  roost. 
She  was  now  harmless  to  strike :  Themison,  Carling,  Jarni- 
man,  even  the  Kev.  Groseman  Buttermore,  had  been  won 
to  the  cause  of  humanity.  Her  ascent,  considering  her 
inability  to  do  further  harm  below,  was  most  mysteriously 
delayed.  Owing  to  it,  in  a  manner  almost  as  mysterious, 
he  was  kept  crossing  a  bridge  having  a  slippery  bit  on  it. 
Thanks  to  his  gallant  Fredi,  he  had  found  his  feet  again. 
But  there  was  a  bruise  where,  to  his  honour,  he  felt  tenderest. 
And  Fredi  away,  he  might  be  down  again — for  no  love  of 
a  slippery  bit,  proved  slippery,  one  might  guess,  by  a  pre- 
decessor or  two.  Ta-ta-ta-ta  and  mum !  Still,  in  justice 
to  the  little  woman,  she  had  been  serviceable.  She  would 
be  still  more  so,  if  a  member  of  Parliament  now  on  his  back 
— here  we  are  with  the  murder-eye  again  ! 

Nesta's  never  speaking  of  Lakelands  clouded  him  a  little, 
as  an  intimation  of  her  bent  of  mind. 

"And  does  my  girl  come  to  her  dada  to-day?"  he  said, 
on  the  fifth  morning  since  her  return;  prepared  with  a 
villanous  resignation  to  hear,  that  this  day  she  abstained, 
though  he  had  the  wish  for  her  coming. 

"  Why,  don't  you  know,"  said  she,  "we  all  meet  to  have 
tea  in  Mr  Durance's  chambers ;  and  I  walk  back  with  you, 
and  there  we  are  joined  by  mama ;  and  we  are  to  have  a 
feast  of  literary  celebrities." 

"Colney's  selection  of  them!  And  Simeon  Fenellan,  I 
hope.     Perhaps  Dartrey.     Perhaps  .  .  .  eh  ? " 

She  reddened.  So  Dudley  Sowerby's  unspoken  name 
could  bring  the  blush  to  her  cheeks.  Dudley  had  his  excuses 
in  his  brother's  condition.  His  father's  health,  too,  was — 
but  this  was  Dudley  calculating.  Where  there  are  coronets, 
calculations  of  this  sort  must  needs  occur;  just  as  where 
there  are  complications.  Odd,  one  fancies  it,  that  we  walking 
along  the  pavement  of  civilized  life,  should  be  perpetually 
summoning  Orous  to  our  aid,  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  clear 
course, 


852  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  And  supposing  a  fog,  my  dearie?  "  lie  said. 

"  The  daughter  in  search  of  her  father  carries  a  lamp  to 
light  her  to  him  through  densest  fogs  as  well  as  over  deserts,'* 
&c.  She  declaimed  a  long  sentence,  to  set  the  ripple  running 
in  his  features  ;  and  when  he  left  the  room  for  a  last  word 
with  Armandine,  she  flung  arms  round  her  mother's  ne*k, 
murmuring:  Mother!  mother!  "  a  cry  equal  to  "I  am  sure 
I  do  right,"  and  understood  so  by  Nataly  approving  it ;  she 
too  on  the  line  of  her  instinct,  without  an  object  in  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

THE   MOTHER — THE   DAUGHTER. 

Taking  Nesta's  hand,  on  her  entry  into  his  chambers  with 
her  father,  Colney  Durance  bowed  over  it  and  kissed  it.  The 
unusual  performance  had  a  meaning  ;  she  felt  she  was  praised. 
It  might  be  because  she  made  herself  her  father's  com- 
panion. "  I  can't  persuade  him  to  put  on  a  great-coat,"  she 
said.  "  You  would  defeat  his  aim  at  the  particular  waistcoat 
of  his  ambition,"  said  Colney,  goaded  to  speak,  not  anxious 
to  be  heard. 

He  kept  her  beside  him,  leading  her  about  for  intro- 
ductions to  multiform  celebrities  of  both  sexes  :  among  them 
the  gentleman  editing  the  Magazine  which  gave  out  serially 
The  Rival  Tongues  :  and  there  was  tftlk  of  a  dragon-throated 
public's  queer  appetite  in  Letters.  The  pained  Editor  defe- 
rentially smiled  at  her  cheerful  mention  of  Delphica.  "  In 
book  form,  perhaps!"  he  remarked,  with  plaintive  resig- 
nation; adding:  "You  read  it?"  And  a  lady  exclaimed: 
"  We  all  read  it ! " 

But  we  are  the  elect,  who  see  signification  and  catch 
flavour ;  and  we  are  reminded  of  an  insatiable  monster  how 
sometimes  capricious  is  his  gorge.  "  He  may  happen  to  be 
in  the  humour  for  a  shaking !  "  Colney's  poor  consolation  it 
was  to  say  of  the  prospects  of  his  published  book  :  for  the 
funny  monster  has  been  known  to  like  a  shaking. 

"  He  takes  it  kinder  tickled,"  said  Fenellan,  joining  the 
group  and  grasping  Nesta's  hand  with  a  warmth  that  thrilled 


THE  MOTHER THE  DAUGHTER.  853 

her  and  set  her  guessing.  "  A  taste  of  his  favourite  Cayenne 
lollypop,  Colney;  it  fetches  the  tear  he  loves  to  shed,  or  it 
gives  him  digestive  heat  in  the  bag  of  his  literary  recep- 
tacle— fearfully  relaxed  and  enormous  !  And  no  wonder ; 
his  notion  of  the  altitude  for  reading,  is  to  lie  him  down  on 
his  back ;  and  he  has  in  a  jiffy  the  funnel  of  the  Libraries 
inserted  into  his  mouth,  and  he  feels  the  publishers  pouring 
their  gallons  through  it  unlimitedly;  never  crying  out, 
which  he  can't ;  only  swelling,  which  he's  obliged  to  do, 
wiih  a  non-nutritious  inflation;  and  that's  his  intellectual 
enjoyment;  bearing  a  likeness  to  the  horrible  old  torture  of 
the  baillir  d'eau;  and  he's  doomed  to  perish  in  the  worst 
book-form  of  dropsy.  You,  my  dear  Colney,  have  offended 
his  police  or  excise,  who  stand  by  the  funnel,  in  touch  with 
his  palate,  to  make  sure  that  nothing  above  proof  is  poured 
in  ;  and  there's  your  misfortune.  He's  not  half  a  bad  fellow, 
you  find  when  you  haven't  got  to  serve  him." 

••  Superior  to  his  official  parasites,  one  supposes  !  "  Colney 
murmured. 

The  celebrities  were  unaffectedly  interested  in  a  literary 
failure  having  certain  merits;  they  discussed  it,  to  compli- 
ment the  crownless  author  ;  and  the  fervider  they,  the  more 
was  he  endowed  to  read  the  meanness  prompting  the  gene- 
rosity. Publication  of  a  book,  is  the  philosopher's  lantern 
upon  one's  fellows. 

Colney  was  caught  away  from  his  private  manufactory  of 
acids  by  hearing  Simeon  Fenellan  relate  to  Victor  some  of 
the  recent  occurrences  at  Brighton.  Simeon's  tone  was  un- 
satisfying ;  Colney  would  have  the  word ;  he  was  like  steel 
on  the  grindstone  for  such  a  theme  of  our  national  grotesque- 
Bublime. 

"  That  Demerara  Supple-jack,  Victor  !  Don't  listen  to 
Simeon;  he's  a  man  of  lean  narrative,  fit  to  chronicle 
political  party  wrangles  and  such  like  crop  of  carcase  prose: 
this  is  epical.  In  Drink  we  have  Old  England's  organic  Epic ; 
Greeks  and  Trojans ;  Parliamentary  Olympus,  ennobled 
brewers,  nasal  fanatics,  all  the  machinery  to  hand.  Keep  a 
straight  eye  on  the  primary  motives  of  man,  you'll  own  the 
English  produce  the  material  for  proud  verse  ;  they're  alive 
there  !  Dai  trey's  Demerara  makes  a  pretty  episode  of  the 
battle.  I  haven't  seen  it — if  it's  possible  to  look  on  it :  but 
I  hear  it  is  flexible,  of  a  vulgar  appearance  in  repose,  Jove's 

2a 


354  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

lightning  at  one  time,  the  thong  of  iEaeus  at  another. 
Observe  Dartrey  marching  off  to  the  Station,  for  the  purpose 
of  laying  his  miraculous  weapon  across  the  shoulders  of  a 
Bon  of  Mars,  who  had  offended.  But  we  have  his  name, 
my  dear  Victor!  His  name,  Simeon? — Worrell;  a  Major 
Worrell :  his  offence  being  probably,  that  he  obtained  mili- 
tary instruction  in  the  Service,  and  left  it  at  his  convenience, 
for  our  poor  patch  and  tatter  British  Army  to  take  in  his 
place  another  young  student,  who'll  grow  up  to  do  similarly. 
And  Dartrey,  we  assume,  is  off  to  stop  that  system.  You 
behold  Sir  Dartrey  twirling  the  weapon  in  preparatory 
fashion ;  because  he  is  determined  we  shall  have  an  army  of 
trained  officers  instead  of  infant  amateurs  heading  heroio 
louts.  Not  a  thought  of  Beer  in  Dartrey ! — always  unpa- 
triotic, you'll  say.  Plato  entreats  his  absent  mistress  to  fix 
e}res  on  a  star :  eyes  on  Beer  for  the  uniting  of  you  English ! 
1  tell  you  no  poetic  fiction.  Seeing  him  on  his  way,  thus 
terribly  armed,  and  knowing  his  intent,  Venus,  to  shield  a 
former  favourite  servant  of  Mars,  conjured  the  most  diverting 
of  interventions,  in  the  shape  of  a  young  woman  in  a  poke- 
bonnet,  and  Skepsey,  her  squire,  marching  with  a  dozen  or 
so,  informing  bedevilled  mankind  of  the  hideousness  of  our 
hymnification  when  it  is  not  under  secluding  sanction  of  the 
Edifice,  and  challenging  criticism ;  and  that  was  hard  by, 
and  real  English,  in  the  form  of  bludgeons,  wielded  by  a 
battalion  of  the  national  idol  Bungay  Beervat's  boys;  and 
they  fell  upon  the  hymners.  Here  you  fill  in  with  pastoral 
similes.  They  struck  the  maid  adored  by  Skepsey.  And 
that  was  the  blow  which  slew  them !  Our  little  man  drove 
into  the  press  with  a  pair  of  fists  able  to  do  their  work.  A 
valiant  skiff  upon  a  sea  of  enemies,  he  was  having  it  on  the 
nob,  and  suddenly  the  Demerara  lightened.  It  flailed  to 
thresh.  Enough  to  say,  brains  would  have  come.  The 
Bungays  made  a  show  of  fight.  No  lack  of  blood  in  them, 
to  stock  a  raw  shilling's  worth  or  gush  before  Achilles  raging. 
You  perceive  the  picture,  you  can  almost  sing  the  ballad. 
We  want  only  a  few  names  of  the  fallen.  It  was  the  carving 
of  a  maitre  chef,  according  to  Skepsey  :  right — left — and  point, 
with  supreme  precision  :  they  tell,  accurately  sliced  from  the 
jo > nt.  Having  done  with  them,  Dartrey  tossed  the  Demerara 
to  Skepsey,  and  washed  his  hands  of  battle ;  and  he  let  his 
major  go  unscathed.     Phlebotomy  sufficient  for  the  day ! " 


THE  MOTHER THE  DAUGHTER.  855 

Nesta's  ears  hummed  with  the  name  of  Major  Worrell. 

"  Skepsey  did  come  back  to  London  with  a  rather  damaged 
frontispiece,"  Victor  said.  "  He  can't  have  joined  those 
people  ?  " 

"  They  may  suit  one  of  your  militant  peacemakers,"  inter- 
posed Eenellan.  "  The  most  placable  creatures  alive,  and 
the  surest  for  getting-up  a  shindy." 

"  Suit  him  !  They're  the  scandal  of  our  streets."  Victor 
was  pricked  with  a  jealousy  of  them  for  beguiling  him  of  his 
trusty  servant. 

•'Look  at  your  country,  see  where  it  shows  its  vitality," 
said  Colney,  "You  don't  see  elsewhere  any  vein  in  move- 
ment— movement,"  he  harped  on  the  word  Victor  constantly 
employed  to  express  the  thing  he  wanted  to  see.  M  Think  of 
that,  when  the  procession  sets  your  teeth  on  edge.  They're 
honest  foes  of  vice,  and  they  move  : — in  England  !  Pulpit- 
preaching  has  no  effect,  lor  gross  maladies,  gross  remedies. 
You  may  judge  of  what  you  are  by  the  quality  of  the  cure. 
Puritanism,  I  won't  attempt  to  paint — it  would  barely  be 
decent ,  but  compare  it  with  the  spectacle  of  English  fj  ivolity, 
and  you'll  admit  it  to  be  the  best  show  you  make.  It  may 
still  be  the  saving  of  you — on  the  level  of  the  orderiy  ox : 
I've  not  observed  that  it  aims  at  higher. — And  talking  of  the 
pulpit,  Barmby  is  off  to  the  East,  has  accepted  a  Shoreditch 
curacy,  Skepsey  tells  me." 

**  So  there's  the  reason  for  our  not  seeing  him  !  "  Victor 
turned  to  Nesta. 

"  Papa,  you  won't  be  angry  with  Skepsey  if  he  has  joined 
those  people,"  said  Nesta.  "  I'm  sure  he  thinks  of  serving 
his  country,  Mr.  Durance." 

Colney  smiled  on  her.     "  And  you  too?" 

M  If  women  knew  how  !  " 

"  They're  hitting  on  more  ways  at  present  than  the  men — 
in  England." 

'•  But,  Mr.  Durance,  it  speaks  well  for  England  when 
they're  allowed  the  chance  here." 

"  Good !  "  Eenellan  exclaimed.  "  And  that  upsets  his 
placement  of  the  modern  national  genders :  Germany  mas- 
culine, France  feminine,  Old  England  what  remains." 

Victor  ruffled  and  reddened  on  his  shout  of  "Neuter?" 

Their  circle  widened.  Nesta  knew  she  was  on  promotion, 
by  her  being  led  about  and  introduced  to  ladies^^hey^wero 


^iLCALIFOR^L 


B56  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

encouraging  with.  her.  One  of  them,  a  Mrs.  Marina  Floyer, 
had  recently  raised  a  standard  of  feminine  insurrection.  She 
said  :  *'  I  hear  your  praises  from  Mr.  Durance.  He  rarely 
praises.  You  have  shown  capacity  to  meditate  on  the  con- 
dition of  women,  he  says." 

Nesta  drew  a  shorter  breath,  with  a  hope  at  heart.  She 
speculated  in  the  dark,  as  to  whether  her  aim  to  serve  aud 
help  was  not  so  friendless.  And  did  Mr.  Durance  approve? 
But  surely  she  stood  in  a  glorious  England  if  there  were 
men  and  women  to  welcome  a  girl  to  their  councils.  Oh! 
that  is  the  broad  free  England  where  gentlemen  and  gentle- 
women accept  of  the  meanest  aid  to  cleanse  the  land  of  its 
iniquities,  and  do  not  suffer  shame  to  smite  a  young  face  for 
touching  upon  horrors  with  a  pure  design. 

She  cried  in  her  bosom  :  I  feel !  She  had  no  other  expres- 
sion for  that  which  is  as  near  as  great  natures  may  come  to 
the  conceiving  of  the  celestial  spirit  from  an  emissary  angel ; 
and  she  trembled,  the  fire  ran  through  her.  It  seemed  to 
her,  that  she  would  be  called  to  help  or  that  certainly  they 
were  nearing  to  an  effacement  of  the  vvoefullest  of  evils;  and 
if  not  helping,  it  would  still  be  a  blessedness  for  her  to 
kneel  thanking  heaven. 

Society  was  being  attacked  and  defended.  She  could  but 
studiously  listen.  Her  father  was  listening.  The  assailant 
was  a  lady;  and  she  had  a  hearing,  although  she  treated 
Society  as  a  discrowned  monarch  on  trial  for  an  offence 
against  a  more  precious :  viz.,  the  individual  cramped  by 
brutish  laws:  the  individual  with  the  ideas  of  our  time, 
righteously  claiming  expansion  out  of  the  clutches  of  a 
narrow  old-world  disciplinarian — that  giant  hypocrite  !  She 
flung  the  gauntlet  at  externally  venerable  Institutions;  and 
she  had  a  hearing,  where  horrification,  execration,  the  foul 
Furies  of  Conservatism  would  in  a  shortly  antecedent  day 
have  been  hissing  and  snakily  lashing,  hounding  her  to  ex- 
pulsion. Mrs.  Marina  Floyer  gravely  seconded  her.  Colney 
did  the  same.  Victor  turned  sharp  on  him.  "  Yes,"  Colney 
said  ;  M  we  unfold  the  standard  of  extremes  in  this  country, 
to  get  a  single  step  taken :  that's  how  we  move  :  we  threaten 
death  to  get  footway.  Now,  mark  :  Society's  errors  will  be 
admitted." 

A  gentleman  spoke.  He  began  by  admitting  Society's 
errors.     Nevertheless,  it  so  distinctly  exists  for  the  common 


THE  MOTHER THE  DAUGHTER.  357 

good,  that  we  may  say  of  Society  in  relation  to  the  individual, 
it  is  the  body  to  the  soul.  We  may  wash,  trim,  purify,  but 
we  must  not  maim  it.  The  assertion  of  our  individuality 
in  opposition  to  the  Government  of  Society — this  existing 
Society— is  a  toss  of  the  cap  for  the  erasure  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, et  caetera. 

Platitudes  can  be  of  intense  interest  if  they  approach  our 
case. — But,  if  you  please,  we  ask  permission  to  wash,  trim, 
purify,  and  we  do  not  get  it. — But  you  have  it ! — Because  we 
take  it  at  our  peril ;  and  you,  who  are  too  cowardly  to  grant 
or  withhold,  call-up  the  revolutionary  from  the  pits  by  your 
slackness : — &c.  There  was  a  pretty  hot  debate.  Both 
aMsailaut  and  defendant,  to  Victor's  thinking,  spoke  well,  and 
each  the  right  thing  :  and  he  could  have  made  use  of  both,  but 
he  could  answer  neither.  He  beat  about  for  the  cause  of  this 
deficiency,  and  discovered  it  in  his  position.  Mentally,  he 
was  on  the  side  of  Society.  Yet  he  was  annoyed  to  find  the 
attack  was  so  easily  answerable  when  the  defense  unfolded. 
But  it  was  absurd  to  expect  it  would  not  be.  And  in  fact,  a 
position  secretly  rebellious  is  equal  to  water  on  the  brain  for 
stultifying  us. 

Before  the  controversy  was  over,  a  note  in  Nataly's  hand- 
writing called  him  home.  She  wrote:  "  Make  my  excuses. 
C.  D.  will  give  Nesta  and  some  lady  dinner.  A  visitor  here. 
Come  alone,  and  without  delay.  Quite  well,  robust.  Im- 
patient to  consult  with  you,  nothing  else." 

Kesta  was  happy  to  stay  ;  and  Victor  set  forth. 

The  visitor?  plainly  Dudley.  Nataly's  trusting  the  girl 
to  the  chance  of  some  lady  being  present,  was  unlike  her. 
Dudley  might  be  tugging  at  the  cord ;  and  the  recent  con- 
versation upon  Society,  rendered  one  of  its  gilt  pillars  par- 
ticularly estimable. — A  person  in  the  debate  had  declared 
this  modern  protest  on  behalf  of  individualism  to  represent 
Society's  Criminal  Trial.  And  it  is  likely  to  be  a  long  one. 
And  good  f>r  tie  world,  that  we  see  such  a  Trial! — Well 
said  or  not,  undoubtedly  Society  is  an  old  criminal  :  not 
much  more  advanced  than  the  state  of  spiritual  worship 
where  bloody  sacrifice  was  oflered  to  a  hungry  Lord.  But 
it  has  a  case  for  pleading.  We  may  liken  it,  as  we  have 
it  now,  to  the  bumping  lumberer's  rait ;  suitable  along 
torrent  waters  until  we  come  to  smoother.  Are  we  not  on 
waters  of  a  certain  smoothness  at  the  reflecting  level?— 


358  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

enough  to  justify  demands  for  a  vessel  of  finer  design.  If 
Society  is  to  subsist,  it  must  have  the  human  with  the  logical 
argument  against  the  cry  of  the  free-flags,  instead  of  pre- 
senting a  block's  obtuseness.  That,  you  need  not  hesitate  to 
believe,  will  be  rolled  downward  and  disintegrated,  sooner 
than  later.  A  Society  based  on  the  logical  concrete  of  humane 
considerateness  : — a  Society  prohibiting  to  Mrs.  Burman  her 
wielding  of  a  life-long  rod.  .  .  . 

The  personal  element  a<rain  to  confuse  inquiry  ! — And 
Skepsey  and  Barmby  both  of  them  bent  on  doing  work  with- 
out inquiry  of  any  sort !  They  were  enviable :  they  were 
good  fellows.  Victor  clung  to  the  theme  because  it  hinted 
of  next  door  to  his  lost  Idea.  He  rubbed  the  back  of  his 
head,  fancying  a  throb  there. — Are  civilized  creatures  inca- 
pable of  abstract  thought  when  their  social  position  is 
dubious?  For  if  so,  we  never  can  be  quit  of  those  we  for- 
sake.— Apparently  Mrs.  Burman's  unfathomed  power  lay  in 
her  compelling  him  to  summon  the  devilish  in  himself  and 
play  upon  the  impish  in  Society,  that  he  might  overcome 
her. 

Victor's  house-door  stopped  this  current. 

Nataly  took  his  embrace. 

"  Nothing  wrong  ?  "  he  said,  and  saw  the  something.  It 
was  a  favourable  moment  to  tell  her  what  she  might  not  at 
another  time  regard  as  a  small  affair.  "News  in  the  City 
to-day  of  that  South  London  borough  being  vacated.  Quatley 
urges  me.  A  death  again  !  I  saw  Pempton,  too.  Will  you 
credit  me  when  I  tell  you  he  carries  his  infatuation  so  far, 
that  he  has  been  investing  in  Japanese  and  Chinese  Loans, 
because  they  are  less  meat-eaters  than  others,  and  vegetarians 
are  more  stable,  and  outlast  us  all! — Dudley  the  visitor?" 

"  Mr.  Sowerby  has  been  here,"  she  said,  in  a  shaking  low 
voice. 

Victor  held  her  hand  and  felt  a  squeeze  more  nervous  than 
affectionate. 

"  To  consult  with  me,"  she  added.  "  My  maid  will  go  at 
ten  to  bring  Nesta  ;  Mr.  Durance  I  can  count  on,  to  see  her 
safe  home.     Ah  !  "  she  wailed. 

Victor  nodded,  saying :  "  I  guess.  And,  my  love,  you  will 
receive  Mrs.  John  Cormyn  to-morrow  morning.  I  can't 
endure  gaps.  Gaps  in  our  circle  must  never  be.  Do  I 
guess  ? — I  spoke  to  Colney  about  bringing  her  home." 


THE  MOTHER THE  DAUGHTER.  859 

Nataly  sighed  •  "  Ah  !  make  what  provision  we  will  ! 
Evil Mr.  Sowerby  has  had  a  great  deal  to  bear." 

*  A  worldling  may  think  so." 

Her  breast  heaved,  and  the  wave  burst :  but  her  restrain- 
ing of  tears  froze  her  speech. 

*  Victor  !  Our  Nesta!  Mr.  Sowerby  is  unable  to  explain. 
And  how  the  Miss  Duvidneys  !  ...  At  that  Brighton  !  " — 
The  voice  he  heard  was  not  his  darling's  deep  rich  note,  it 
had  dropped  to  toneless  hoarseness  :  "  She  has  been  per- 
mitted to  make  acquaintance — she  has  been  seen  riding  with 
— she  has  called  upon —  Oh !  it  is  one  of  those  abandoned 
women.  In  her  house!  Our  girl!  Our  Nesta!  She  was 
insulted  by  a  man  in  the  woman's  house.  She  is  talked  of 
over  Brighton.  The  mother  ! — the  daughter !  And  grant 
me  this — that  never  was  girl  more  carefully  .  .  .  never  till 
she  was  taken  from  me.  Oh  !  do  not  forget.  You  will 
defend  me  ?  You  will  say,  that  her  mother  did  with  all  her 
soul  strive  ...  It  is  not  a  rumour.  Mr.  Sowerby  has  had 
it  confirmed."     A  s  >b  caught  her  voice. 

Victor's  hands  caressed  to  console :  "  Dudley  does  not 
propose  to  .  .  .  ?  " 

"Nesta  must  promise  .  .  .  But  bow  it  happened?  How! 
An  acquaintance  with — contact  with  ! — Oh  !  cruel !  "  Each 
time  she  ceased  speaking,  the  wrinkles  of  a  shiver  went  over 
her,  and  the  tone  was  of  tears  coming,  but  she  locked  them  in. 

"An  accident!"  said  Victor;  "some  misunderstanding — 
there  can't  be  harm.  Of  course,  she  promises — hasn't  to 
promise.  How  could  a  girl  distinguish !  He  does  not  cast 
blame  on  her?" 

"Dear,  if  you  would  go  down  to  Dartrey  to-morrow.  He 
knows: — it  is  over  the  Clubs  there;  he  will  tell  you,  before 
a  word  to  Nesta.  Innocent,  yes  !  Mr.  Sowerby  has  not  to 
be  assured  of  that.  Ignorant  of  the  character  of  the  dreadful 
woman?  Ah,  it  I  could  ever  in  anything  think  her  ignorant ! 
She  frightens  me.  Mr.  Sowerby  is  indulgent.  He  does  me 
justice.  My  duty  to  her— I  must  defend  myself — has  been 
my  first  thought.  I  said  in  my  prayers— she  at  least !  .  .  . 
We  have  to  see  the  more  than  common  reasons  why  she,  of 
all  girls,  should — he  did  not  hint  it,  he  was  delicate  :  her 
name  must  not  be  public." 

"Yes,  yes,  Dudley  is  without  parallel  as  a  gentleman," 
sa<d  Victor.     "  It  do^s  not  suit  me  to  hear  the  word  '  indul- 


360  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

gent.'  My  dear,  if  you  were  down  there,  you  would  discover 
that  the  talk  was  the  talk  of  two  or  three  men  seeing  <  ur 
girl  ride  by — and  she  did  ride  with  a  troop  :  why,  we've 
watched  them  along  the  parade,  often.  Clear  as  day  how  it 
happened  !     I'll  go  down  early  to-morrow." 

He  fancied  Nataly  was  appeased.  And  even  out  of  this 
annoyance,  there  was  the  gain  of  her  being  won  to  favour 
Dudley's  hitherto  but  tolerated  suit. 

Nataly  also  had  the  fancy,  that  the  calm  following  on  her 
anguish,  was  a  moderation  of  it.  She  was  kept  strung  to 
confide  in  her  girl  by  the  recent  indebtedness  to  her  for 
words  heavenly  in  the  strengthening  comfort  they  gave. 
But  no  sooner  was  she  alone  than  her  torturing  perplexities 
and  her  abasement  of  the  hours  previous  to  Victor's  coming 
returned. 

For  a  girl  of  Nesta's  head  could  not  be  deceived ;  she  had 
come  home  with  a  woman's  intelligence  of  the  world,  hard 
knowledge  of  it— a  knowledge  drawn  from  foul  wells,  the 
unhappy  mother  imagined :  she  dreaded  to  probe  to  the  depth 
of  it.  She  had  in  her  wounded  breast  the  world's  idea,  that 
corruption  must  come  of  the  contact  with  impurity. 

Nataly  renewed  her  cry  of  despair  :  "  The  mother  ! — the 
daughter  ! " — her  sole  revelation  of  the  heart's  hollows  in  her 
stammered  speaking  to  Victor. 

She  thanked  heaven  for  the  loneliness  of  her  bed,  where 
she  could  repeat :  "  The  mother  ! — the  daughter  !  "  hearing 
the  world's  words  : — the  daughter  excused,  by  reason  of  her 
having  such  a  mother;  the  mother  unpitied  for  the  bruiting 
of  her  brazen  daughter's  name:  but  both  alike  consigned  to 
the  corners  of  the  world's  dust-heaps.  She  cried  out,  that 
her  pride  was  broken.  Her  pride,  her  last  support  of  life, 
had  gone  to  pieces.  The  tears  she  restrained  in  Victor's 
presence,  were  called  on  to  come  now,  and  she  had  none.  It 
might  be,  that  she  had  not  strength  for  weeping.  She  was 
very  weak.  Eising  from  bed  to  lock  her  door  against  Neva's 
entry  to  the  room  on  her  return  at  night,  she  could  hardly 
stand :  a  chill  and  a  clouding  overcame  her.  The  quitted 
bed  seemed  the  haven  of  a  drifted  wreck  to  reach. 

Victor  tried  the  handle  of  a  locked  door  in  the  dark  of  the 
early  winter  morning.  "  The  mother  ! — the  daughter  !  "  had 
swung  a  pendulum  tor  some  time  during  the  night  in  him, 
too.     He  would  rather  have  been  subjected  to  the  spectaclu 


NATALY,    NESTA,    AND   DARTRE Y   FENELLAN.  861 

of  tears  than  have  heard  that  toneless  voic\  as  it  were  the 
dry  torrent-bed  rolling  blocks  intead  of  melodious,  if  afflict- 
ing, waters. 

He  told  Nesta  not  to  disturb  her  mother,  and  murmured 
of  a  headache :  kl  Though,  upon  my  word,  the  best  cure  for 
mama  would  be  a  look  into  Predi's  eyes  ! "  he  said,  embrac- 
ing his  girl,  quite  believing  in  her,  just  a  little  afraid  of  her. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

NATALY,    NESTA,    AND   DARTREY   FENELLAN. 

Pleasant  things,  that  come  to  us  too  late  for  onr  savour  of 
the  sweetness  in  them,  toll  ominously  of  life  on  the  last  walk 
to  its  end.  Yesterday,  before  Dudley  Sowerby's  visit,  Nataly 
would  have  been  stirred  where  the  te»rs  we  shed  for  happiness 
or  repress  at  a  flattery  dwell  when  seeing  her  friend  Mrs. 
John  Cor  my  n  enter  her  boudoir  and  hearing  her  speak  re- 
pentantly, most  tenderly.  Mrs.  John  said  :  "  You  will  believe 
I  have  suffered,  dear;  I  am  half  my  weight,  I  do  think  : " 
and  she  did  not  set  the  smile  of  responsive  humour  moving ; 
although  these  two  ladies  had  a  key  of  laughter  between 
tliem.  Nataly  took  her  kiss;  held  her  hand,  and  at  the 
parting  kissed  her.  She  would  rather  have  seen  her  friend 
than  not :  so  far  she  differed  from  a  corpse ;  but  she  was  near 
the  likeness  to  the  dead  in  the  insensibility  to  any  change 
of  light  shining  on  one  who  best  loved  darkness  and  silence. 
She  cried  to  herself  wilfully,  that  her  pride  was  broken  :  as 
women  do  when  they  spurn  at  the  wounding  of  a  dignity 
they  cannot  protect  and  die  to  see  bleeding;  for  in  it  they 
live. 

The  cry  came  of  her  pride  unbroken,  sore  bruised,  and 
after  a  certain  space  for  recovery  combative.  She  said  :  Any 
expiation  1  could  offer  where  I  did  injury,  I  would  not  refuse, 
I  would  humble  in}  self  and  bless  heaven  for  being  able  to 
pay  my  debt — what  I  can  of  it.  All  I  contend  against  is, 
injustice.  And  she  sank  into  sensational  protests  of  her 
anxious  care  of  her  daughter,  too  proud  to  phrase  them. 

Her  one  great  affliction,  the  scourging  affliction  of  her 
utter  loneliness; — an  outcast  from  her  family;   daily,  aud 


362  ONE   OP   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

she  knew  not  how,  more  shut  away  from  the  man  she  loved ; 
now  shut  away  from  her  girl ; — seemed  under  the  hand  of 
the  angel  of  God.  The  abandonment  of  her  by  friends,  was 
merely  the  light  to  show  it. 

Midday's  post  brought  her  a  letter  from  Priscilla  Graves, 
entreating  to  be  allowed  to  call  on  her  next  day. — We  are 
not  so  easily  cast  off!  Nataly  said,  bitterly,  in  relation  to 
the  lady  whose  offending  had  not  been  so  great.  She  wrote : 
u  Come,  if  sure  that  you  sincerely  wish  to." 

Having  fasted,  she  ate  at  lunch  in  her  dressing-room,  with 
some  taste  of  the  food,  haunted  by  an  accusation  of  gluttony 
because  of  her  eating  at  all,  and  a  vile  confession,  that  she 
was  enabled  to  eat,  owing  to  the  receipt  of  Priscilla's  empty 
letter :  for  her  soul's  desire  was  to  be  doing  a  deed  of  ex- 
piation, and  the  macerated  flesh  seemed  her  assurance  to 
herself  of  the  courage  to  make  amends. — I  must  have  some 
strength,  she  said  wearifully,  in  apology  for  the  morsel 
consumed. 

Nesta's  being  in  the  house  with  her,  became  an  excessive 
irritation.  Doubts  of  the  girl's  possible  honesty  to  speak  a 
reptile  truth  under  question;  amazement  at  her  boldness 
to  speak  it ;  hatred  of  the  mouth  that  could :  and  loathing 
of  the  words,  the  theme ;  and  abomination  of  herself  for 
conjuring  fictitious  images  to  rouse  real  emotions  ;  all  ran 
counterthreads,  that  produced  a  mad  pattern  in  the  mind, 
affrighting  to  reason :  and  then,  for  its  preservation,  reason 
took  a  superrational  leap,  and  ascribed  the  terrible  injustice 
of  this  last  cruel  stroke  to  the  divine  scourge,  recognized 
divine  by  the  selection  of  the  mortal  spot  for  chastisement. 
She  clasped  her  breast,  and  said :  It  is  mortal.  And  that 
calmed  her. 

She  said,  smiling:  I  never  felt  my  sin  until  this  blow 
came  !  Therefore  the  blow  was  proved  divine.  Ought  it 
not  to  be  welcomed? — and  she  appearing  no  better  than  one 
of  those,  the  leprous  of  the  sex !  And  brought  to  acknow- 
ledgement of  the  likeness  by  her  daughter  ! 

Nataly  drank  the  poison  distilled  from  her  exclamations 
and  was  ice.  She  had  denied  herself  to  Nesta's  redoubled 
petition.  Nesta  knocking  at  the  door  a  third  time  and  calling, 
tore  the  mother  two  ways :  to  have  her  girl  on  her  breast 
or  snap  their  union  in  a  word  with  an  edge.  She  heard  the 
voice  of  Dartrey  Fenellan. 


NATALY,  NESTA,  AND  DARTREY  FENELLAN.      863 

He  was  admitted.  "  No,  dear,"  she  said  to  Nesta ;  and 
Nesta's,  "  My  own  mother,"  consentingly  said,  in  tender 
resignation,  as  she  retired,  sprang  a  stinging  tear  to  the 
mother's  eyelids. 

Dartrey  looked  at  the  door  closing  on  the  girl. 

"  Is  it  a  very  low  woman  ?  "  Nataly  asked  him  in  a  Church 
whisper,  with  a  face  abashed. 

"  It  is  not,"  said  he,  quick  to  meet  any  abruptness. 

"  She  must  be  cunning." 

"  In  the  ordinary  way.  We  say  it  of  Puss  before  the 
hounds. 

"  To  deceive  a  girl  like  Nesta  !  " 

"  She  has  done  no  harm." 

"Dartrey,  you  speak  to  a  mother.  You  have  seen  the 
woman  ?     She  is  ? — ah  !  " 

"  She  is  womanly,  womanly." 

"  Quite  one  of  those  .  .  .  ?  " 

"  My  dear  soul !  You  can't  shake  them  off  in  that  way. 
She  is  one  of  us.  If  we  have  the  class,  we  can't  escape  from 
it.  They  are  not  to  bear  all  the  burden  because  they  exist. 
We  are  the  bigger  debtors.     I  tell  you  she  is  womanly." 

"  It  sounds  like  horrid  cynicism." 

•'  Friends  of  mine  would  abuse  it  for  the  reverse." 

"  Do  not  make  me  hate  your  chivalry.  This  woman  is  a  rod 
on  my  back.  Provided  only  she  has  not  dropped  venom  into 
Nesta's  mind ! " 

"Don't  fear!" 

"  ( ^n  you  tell  me  you  think  she  has  done  no  harm  to  my 
girl?" 

"  To  Nesta  herself  ? — not  any  :  not  to  a  girl  like  your 
girl." 

"  To  my  girl's  name  ?  Speak  at  once.  But  I  know  she 
has.  She  induced  Nesta  to  go  to  her  house.  My  girl  was 
insulted  in  this  woman's  house." 

Dartrey's  forehead  ridged  with  his  old  fury  and  a  gust 
of  present  contempt.  "I  can  tell  you  this,  that  the  fellow 
who  would  think  harm  of  it,  knowing  the  facts,  is  not 
worthy  of  touching  the  tips  of  the  fingers  of  your  girl." 

"She  is  talked  of!" 

"A  good-looking  girl  out  riding  with  a  handsome  woman 
on  a  parade  of  idlers  !  " 

"  The  woman  is  notorious."     Nataly  said  it  shivering. 


364  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

He  shook  his  head.     "  Not  true." 

"  She  has  an  air  of  a  lady  ?  " 

u  She  sits  a  horse  well." 

"Would  she  to  any  extent  deceive  me — impose  on  me 
here?" 

"  No." 

"  Ah  !  n     Nataly  moaned. 

"  But  what  ? "  said  Dartrey.  "  There  was  no  pretence. 
Her  style  is  not  worse  than  that  of  some  we  have  seen. 
There  was  no  effort  to  deceive.  The  woman's  plain  for  you 
and  me  to  read,  she  was  few  of  the  arts ;  one  or  two  tricks, 
if  you  like  :  and  these  were  not  needed  for  use.  There  are 
women  who  have  them,  and  have  not  been  driven  or  let  slip 
into  the  wilderness."  • 

"  Yes ;  I  know  ! — those  ideas  of  yours  !  "  Nataly  had  once 
admired  him  for  his  knightliness  toward  the  weakest  women 
and  the  women  underfoot.  "  You  have  spoken  to  this 
woman?     She  boasted  of  acquaintance  with  Nesta?" 

•*  She  thanked  God  for  having  met  her." 

"  Is  it  one  of  the  hysterical  creatures  ?" 

Mrs.  Marsett  appeared  fronting  Dartrey. 

He  laughed  to  himself.  "  A  clever  question.  There  is  a 
leaning  to  excitement  of  manner  at  times.  It's  not  hysteria. 
Allow  for  her  position." 

Nataly  took  the  unintended  blow,  and  bowed  to  it;  and 
still  more  harshly  said :  "  What  rank  of  life  does  the  woman 
come  from  ?  " 

"  The  class  educated  for  a  skittish  career  by  your  popular 
Stage  and  your  Book-stalls.     I  am  not  precise  ?  " 

"Leave  Mr.  Durance.  Is  she  in  any  degree  commonly 
well-bred?  .  .  .  behaviour,  talk — her  English." 

"  I  trench  on  Mr.  Durance  in  replying.  Her  English 
is  passable.     You  may  hear  .  .  ." 

"  Everywhere,  of  course  !  And  this  woman  of  slipshod 
English  and  excited  manners  imposed  upon  Nesta ! " 

"  It  would  not  be  my  opinion." 

"  Did  not  impose  on  her ! " 

"  Not  many  would  impose  on  Nesta  Eadnor  for  long." 

"  Think  what  that  says,  Dartrey  !  " 

"  You  have  had  a  detestable  version  of  the  story." 

"  Because  an  excited  creature  thanks  God  to  you  for  having 
met  her  1 " 


NATALY,  NESTA,  AND  DARTREY  FENELLAN.      865 

"She  may.  She's  a  better  woman  for  having  met  her. 
Don't  suppose  we're  for  supernatural  conversions.  The 
woman  makes  no  show  of  that.  But  she  has  found  a  good 
soul  among  her  sex — her  better  self  in  youth,  as  one  guesses  ; 
and  she  is  grateful — feels  farther  from  exile  in  consequence. 
She  has  found  a  lady  to  take  her  by  the  hand  ! — not  a  common 
case.  She  can  never  go  to  the  utterly  bad  after  knowing 
Nesta.  I  forget  if  she  says  it ;  I  say  it.  You  have  heard 
the  story  from  one  of  your  conventional  gentlemen." 

"  A  true  gentleman.  I  have  reason  to  thank  him.  He 
has  not  your  ideas  on  these  matters,  Dartrey.  He  is  very 
sensitive  ...  on  Nesta's  behalf." 

"  With  reference  to  marriage.  I'll  own  I  prefer  another 
kind  of  gentleman.  I've  had  my  experience  of  that  kind  of 
gentleman.  Many  of  the  kind  have  added  their  spot  to 
the  outcasts  abominated  for  uncleanness — in  holy  unction. 
Many  ? — I  won't  say  all ;  but  men  who  consent  to  hear  black 
words  pitched  at  them,  and  help  to  .set  good  women  facing 
away  from  them,  are  pious  dolts  or  rascal  dogs  of  hypocrites. 
They,  if  you'll  let  me  quote  Colney  Durance  to  you  to-day — 
and  how. is  it  he  is  not  in  favour? — they  are  tempting  the 
Lord  to  turn  the  pillars  of  Society  into  pillars  of  salt.  Down 
comes  the  house.  And  priests  can  rest  in  sight  of  it ! — They 
ought  to  be  dead  against  the  sanctimony  that  believes  it 
excommunicates  when  it  curves.  The  relationship  is  not 
dissolved  so  cheaply,  though  our  Society  affects  to  think  it  is. 
Bdrmby's  oif  to  the  East  End  of  this  London,  Victor  informs 
me : — good  fellow  !  And  there  he'll  be  groaning  over  our 
vicious  nature.  Nature  is  not  more  responsible  for  vice 
than  she  is  for  inhumanity.  Both  bad,  but  the  latter's  the 
worse  of  the  two." 

Nataly  interposed  :  •*  I  see  the  contrast,  and  see  whom  it's 
to  strike." 

Dartrey  sent  a  thought  after  his  meaning.  "Hardly 
that.  Let  it  stand.  He's  only  one  with  the  world  :  but  he 
shares  the  criminal  infamy  for  crushing  hope  out  of  its  \ 
Irailest  victims.  They're  that — no  sentiment.  What  a 
world,  too,  look  behind  it! — brutal  because  brutish.  The 
world  may  go  hang:  we  expect  more  of  your  gentleman. 
To  hear  of  Nesta  down  there,  and  doubt  that  she  was  about 
good  work; — and  come  complaining!  He  had  the  privilege 
ot  speaking  to  her,  remonstrating,  if  he  wished.    /There  are 


866  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

men  who  think — men ! — the  plucking  of  sinners  out  of  the 
mire  a  dirty  business.  They  depute  it  to  certain  officials. 
And  your  women — it's  the  taste  of  the  world  to  have  them 
educated  so,  that  they  can  as  little  take  the  humane  as  the 
enlightened  view.  Except,  by  the  way,  sometimes,  in 
secret; — they  have' a  sisterly  breast.  In  secret,  they  do 
occasionally  think  as  they  feel.  In  public,  the  brass  mask 
of  the  Idol  they  call  Propriety  commands  or  supplies  their 
feelings  and  thoughts.  I  won't  repeat  my  reasons  for 
educating  them  differently.  At  present  we  have  but  half 
_.  the  woman  to  go  through  life  with — and  thank  you." 

Dartrey  stopped.  "  Don't  be  disturbed,"  he  added. 
"  There's  no  ground  for  alarm.     Not  of  any  sort." 

Natal y  haid :  "  What  name  ?  " 

u  Her  name  is  Mrs.  Marsett." 

«'  The  name  is  .  .  .  ?  " 

"Captain  Marsett:  will  be  Sir  Edward.  He  came  back 
from  the  Continent  yesterday." 

A  fit  of  shuddering  seized  Nataly.  It  grew  in  violence, 
and  speaking  out  of  it,  with  a  pause  of  sickly  empty  chatter 
of  the  jaws,  she  said  :  "  Always  that  name  ?  " 

"  Before  the  maiden  name  ?     May  have  been  or  not." 

"  Not,  you  say  ?  " 

"  I  don't  accurately  know." 

Dartrey  sprang  to  his  legs.  "  My  dear  soul !  dear  friend 
— one  of  the  best !  if  we  go  on  fencing  in  the  dark,  there'll 
be  wounds.  Your  way  of  taking  this  affair  disappointed  me. 
Now  I  understand.  It's  the  disease  of  a  trouble,  to  fly  at 
comparisons.  No  real  one  exists.  I  wished  to  protect  the 
woman  from  a  happier  sister's  judgement,  to  save  you  from 
alarm  concerning  Nesta  : — quite  groundless,  if  you'll  believe 
me.  Come,  there's  plenty  of  benevolent  writing  abroad  on 
these  topics  now :  facts  are  more  looked  at,  and  a  good 
won1  an  may  join  us  in  taking  them  without  the  horrors 
and  loathings  of  angels  rather  too  much  given  to  claim  dis- 
tinction from  the  luckless.  A  girl  who's  unprotected  may 
go  through  adventures  before  she  fixes,  and  be  a  creature  of 
honest  intentions.  Better  if  protected,  we  all  agree.  Better 
also  if  the  world  did  not  favour  the  girl's  multitude  of 
v  enemies.  Your  system  of  not  dealing  with  facts  openly  is 
ever)  way  favourable  to  them.  I  am  glad  to  say,  Victor 
recognizes  what  corruption  that  spread  of  wealth  is  account- 


NATALY,    NESTA,    AND    DAKTKEY   FENELLAN.  867 

able  for.  And  now  I  must  go  and  have  a  talk  with  the — 
what  a  change  from  the  blue  butterfly  !  Eaglet,  I  ought  to 
have  said.     I  dine  with  you.  for  Victor  may  bring  news." 

"  Would  anything  down  there  be  news  to  you,  Dartrey  ?  " 

11  He  makes  it  wherever  he  steps." 

"He  would  reproach  me  for  not  detaining  you.  Tell 
Nesta  I  have  to  lie  down  after  talking.  She  has  a  child's 
confidence  in  you." 

A  man  of  middle  age !  he  said  to  himself.  It  is  the 
particular  ejaculation  which  tames  the  senior  whose  heart  is 
for  a  dash  of  holiday.  He  resolved,  that  the  mother  might 
trust  to  the  discretion  of  a  man  of  his  age;  and  he  went 
down  to  Nesta,  grave  with  the  weight  his  count  of  years 
should  give  him.  Seeing  her,  the  light  of  what  he  now 
knew  of  her  was  an  ennobling  equal  to  celestial.  For  this 
fair  girl  was  one  of  the  active  souls  of  the  world — his  dream 
to  discover  in  woman's  form.  She,  the  little  Nesta,  the  tall 
pure-eved  girl  before  him,  was,  young  though  she  was, 
already  in  the  fight  with  evil :  a  volunteer  of  the  army  of 
the  simply  Christian.  The  worse  for  it  ?  Sowerby  would 
think  so.  She  was  not  of  the  order  of  young  women  who, 
in  sheer  ignorance  or  in  voluntary,  consent  to  the  peace  with 
evil,  and  are  kept  externally  safe  from  the  smirch  of  evil, 
and  are  the  ornaments  of  their  country,  glory  of  a  country 
prizing  ornaments  higher  than  qualities. 

Dartrey  could  have  been  moment arily  incredulous  of  things 
revealed  by  Mrs.  Marsett — not  incredulous  of  the  girl's 
heroism  :  that  capacity  he  caught  and  gauged  in  her  shape  of 
head,  cut  of  mouth,  and  the  measurements  he  was  accustomed 
to  make  at  a  glance  : — but  her  beauty,  or  the  form  of  beauty 
which  was  hers,  argued  against  her  having  set  foot  of  thought 
in  our  fens.  Here  and  far  there  we  meet  a  young  saint 
vowed  to  service  along  by  those  dismal  swamps  :  and  saintly 
she  looks  ;  not  of  this  earth.  Nesta  was  of  the  blooming 
earth.  Where  do  we  meet  girl  or  woman  comparable  to 
garden-flowers,  who  can  dare  to  touch  to  lift  the  spotted  of 
her  sex  ?  He  was  puzzled  by  Nesta's  unlikeness  in  deeds 
and  in  aspect.  He  remembered  her  eyes,  on  the  day  when  he 
and  Colonel  Sudley  beheld  her;  presently  he  was  at  quiet 
grapple  with  her  mind.  His  doubts  cleared  off.  Then  the 
question  came,  How  could  a  girl  of  heroical  character  bo 
attached  to  the  man  Sowerby  ?     That  entirely  passed  belief. 


368  ONE  OF  OUR  CONQUERORS. 

And  was  it  possible  his  wishes  beguiled  his  hearing? 
Her  tones  were  singularly  vibrating. 

They  talked  for  a  while  before,  drawing  a  deep  breath,  she 
said  :  "  I  fancy  I  am  in  disgrace  with  my  mother." 

"  You  have  a  suspicion  why  ?  "  said  he. 

"  I  have." 

She  would  have  told  him  why :  the  words  were  at  her  lips. 
Previous  to  her  emotion  on  the  journey  home,  the  words  would 
have  come  out.  They  were  arrested  by  the  thunder  of  the 
knowledge,  that  the  nobleness  in  him  drawing  her  to  be  able 
to  speak  of  scarlet  matter,  was  personally  worshipped. 

He  attributed  the  full  rose  upon  her  cheeks  to  the  for- 
bidding subject. 

To  spare  pain,  he  said :  "  No  misunderstanding  with  the 
dear  mother  will  last  the  day  through.     Can  I  help  ?  " 

"  Oh,  Captain  Dartrey  !  " 

"  Drop  the  captain.     Dartrey  will  do." 

"  How  could  I !  " 

"  You're  not  wanting  in  courage,  Nesta." 

"Haidly  for  that!" 

"By-and-by,  then."  t 

"  Though  I  could  not  say  Mr.  Fenellan." 

•*  You  see ;  Dartrey,  it  must  be." 

"  If  I  could  !  " 

"  But  the  fellow  is  not  a  captain :  and  he  is  a  friend,  an 
old  friend,  very  old  friend  :  he'll  be  tipped  with  grey  in  a 
year  or  two." 

"  I  might  be  bolder  then." 

"  Imagine  it  now.  There  is  no  disloyalty  in  your  calling 
your  friends  by  their  names." 

Her  nature  rang  to  the  implication.     "  I  am  not  bound." 

Dartrey  hung  fast,  speculating  on  her  visibly :  "  I  heard 
you  were." 

44  No.     I  must  be  free." 

"  It  is  not  an  engagement  ?  " 

"  Will  you  laugh  ? — I  have  never  quite  known.  My  father 
desired  it :  and  my  desire  is  to  please  him.  1  think  I  am 
vain  enough  to  think  I  read  through  blinds  and  shutters. 
The  engagement — what  there  was — has  been,  to  my  read- 
ing, broken  more  than  once.  I  have  not  considered  it,  to 
settle  my  thoughts  on  it,  until  lately  :  and  now  I  may 
suspect  it  to  be  broken.    I  have  given  cause — if  it  is  known. 


NATALY,    NESTA,    AND    DARTRE Y   FENELLAN.  869 

There  is  no  blame  elsewhere.     I  am  not  unhappy,  Captain 
Dai  trey." 

"Captain  by  courtesy.  Very  well.  Tell  me  how  Nesta 
judges  the  engagement  to  be  broken  ?  " 

She  was  mentally  phrasing  be  lore  she  said :  "  Absence." 

"  He  was  here  yesterday." 

All  that  the  visit  embraced  was  in  her  expressive  look,  as 
of  sight  drawing  inward,  like  our  breath  in  a  spell  of  wonder- 
ment. "  Then  I  understand ;  it  enlightens  me.  My  own 
mother ! — my  poor  mother  !  he  should  have  come  to  me.  I 
was  the  guilty  person,  not  she  ;  and  she  is  the  sufferer.  That, 
if  in  life  were  direct  retribution  ! — but  the  very  meaning  of 
having  a  heart,  is  to  (suffer  through  others  or  for  them." 

"  You  have  soon  seen  that,  dear  girl,"  said  Dartrey. 

"  So,  my  own  mother,  and  loviug  me  as  she  does,  blames 
me  !  "  Nesta  sighed  ;  she  took  a  sharp  breath.  M  You  ?  do 
you  blame  me  too  ?  " 

He  pressed  her  hand,  enamoured  of  her  instantaneous 
divination  and  heavenly  candour. 

But  he  was  admonished,  that  to  speak  high  approval 
•would  not  be  honourable  advantage  taken  of  the  rival  con- 
demning ;  and  he  said :  "  Blame  ?  Some  think  it  is  not 
always  the  right  thing  to  do  the  right  thing.  I've  made 
mistakes,  with  no  bad  design.  A  good  mother's  view  is  not 
often  wrong." 

"  You  pressed  my  hand,"  she  murmured. 

That  certainly  had  said  more. 

"  Glad  to  again,"  he  responded.  It  was  uttered  airily  and 
was  meant  to  be  as  lightly  done. 

ftesta  did  not  draw  back  her  hand.  "  I  feel  strong  when  I 
you  press  it."  Her  voice  wavered,  and  as  when  we  hear  a 
flask  sing  thin  at  the  filling,  ceased  upon  evidence  of  a  heart 
surcharged.  How  was  he  to  relax  the  pressure  ! — he  had  to 
give  her  the  strength  she  craved  :  and  he  vowed  it  should 
be  but  for  half  a  minute,  half  a  minute  longer. 

Her  tears  fell;  she  eyed  him  steadily;  she  had  the  look 
of  sunlight  in  shower. 

"  Oldish  men  are  the  best  friends  for  you,  I  suppose,"  he 
said  ;  and  her  gaze  turned  elusive  phrases  to  vapour. 

He  was  compelled  to  see  the  fiery  core  of  the  raincloud 
lighting  it  for  a  revealment,  that  allowed  as  little  as  it 
retained  of  a  shadow  of  obscurity. 

2b 


370  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

The  sight  was  keener  than  touch  and  the  run  of  blood 
with  blood  to  quicken  slumbering  seeds  of  passion. 

But  here  is  the  place  of  broken  ground  and  tangle,  which 
calls  to  honourable  men,  not  bent  on  sport,  to  be  wary  to 
guard  the  gunlock.  He  stopped  the  word  at  his  mouth.  It 
was  not  in  him  to  stop  or  moderate  the  force  of  his  eyes. 
She  met  them  with  the  slender  unbendingness  that  was  her 
own  ;  a  feminine  of  inspirited  manhood.  There  was  no  soft 
expression,  only  the  direct  shot  of  light,  on  both  sides; 
conveying  as  much  as  is  borne  from  sun  to  earth,  from 
earth  to  sun.  And  when  such  an  exchange  has  come 
between  the  two,  they  are  past  plighting,  they  are  the 
wedded  one. 

Nesta  felt  it,  without  asking  whether  she  was  loved.  She 
was  his.  She  had  not  a  thought  of  the  word  of  love  or  the 
being  beloved.  Showers  of  painful  blissfulness  went  through 
her,  as  the  tremours  of  a  shocked  frame,  while  she  sat  quietly, 
showing  scarce  a  sign ;  and  after  he  had  let  her  hand  go,  she 
had  the  pressure  on  it.  The  quivering  intense  of  the  moment 
of  his  eyes  and  grasp  was  lord  of  her,  lord  of  the  day  and 
of  all  days  coming.  That  is  how  Love  slays  Death.  Never 
did  girl  so  give  her  soul. 

She  would  have  been  the  last  to  yield  it  unreservedly  to 
a  man  un trusted  for  the  character  she  worshipped.  But  she 
could  have  given  it  to  Dartrey,  despite  his  love  of  another, 
because  it  was  her  soul,  without  any  of  the  cravings,  except 
to  bestow. 

He  perceived,  that  he  had  been  carried  on  for  the  number 
of  steps  which  are  countless  miles  and  do  not  permit  the 
retreat  across  the  desert  behind  ;  and  he  was  in  some  amaze- 
ment at  himself,  remindful  of  the  different  nature  of  our 
restraining  power  when  we  have  a  couple  playing  on  it. 
Yet  here  was  this  girl,  who  called  him  up  to  the  heights 
of  young  life  again  :  and  a  brave  girl ;  and  she  bled  for 
the  weak,  had  no  shrinking  from  the  women  underfoot :  for 
the  reason,  that  she  was  a  girl  sovereignly  pure,  angelically 
tender.     Was  there  a  point  of  honour  to  hold  him  back  ? 

Nataly  entered  the  room.    She  kissed  Nesta,  and  sat  silent. 

"Mother,  will  you  speak  of  me  to  him,  if  I  go  out?" 
Nesta  said. 

44  We  have  spoken,"  her  mother  replied,  vexed  by  the 
unmaidenly  allusion  to  that  theme. 


NATALY,    NESTA,    AND   DARTREY   FENELLAN.  871 

She  would  have  asked,  How  did  you  guess  I  knew  of  it? 
—but  that  the,  Why  should  I  speak  of  you  to  him  ? — struck 
the  louder  note  in  her  bosom :  and  then,  What  is  there  that 
this  girl  cannot  guess!  —  filled  the  mother's  heart  with 
apprehensive  dread:  and  an  inward  cry,  What  things  will 
she  not  set  going,  to  have  them  discussed !  and  the  appalling 
theme,  sitting  offensive  though  draped  in  their  midst,  was 
taken  for  a  proof  of  the  girl's  unblushingness.  After  stand- 
ing as  one  woman  against  the  world  so  long,  Nataly  was 
relieved  to  be  on  the  side  of  a  world  now  convictedly  unjust 
to  her  in  the  confounding  of  her  with  the  shameless.  Her 
mind  had  taken  the  brand  of  that  thought : — And  Nesta  had^ 
brought,  her  to  it : — And  Dudley  Sowerby,  a  generous  repre- 
sentative of  the  world,  had  kindly,  having  the  deputed  power 
to  do  so,  sustained  her,  only  partially  blaming  Nesta,  not 
casting  them  off;  as  the  world,  with  which  Nataly  felt,  under 
a  sense  of  the  protection  calling  up  all  her  gratitude  to  young 
Dudley,  would  have  approved  his  doing. 

She  was  passing  through  a  fit  of  the  cowardice  peculiar 
to  the  tediously  strained,  who  are  being  more  than  com- 
monly tried — persecuted,  as  they  say  when  they  are  not 
supplicating  their  tyrannical  Authority  for  aid.  The  world 
will  continue  to  be  indifferent  to  their  view  of  it  and  be- 
haviour toward  it  until  it  ceases  to  encourage  the  growth  of 
hypocrites. 

These  are  moments  when  the  faces  we  are  observing  drop 
their  charm,  showing  us  our  perversion  internal,  if  we  could 
but  reflect,  to  see  it.  Yery  many  thousand  times  above 
Dudley  Sowerby,  Nataly  ranked  Dartrey  Fenellan ;  and  still 
she  looked  at  him,  where  he  sat  beside  Nesta,  ungenially, 
critical  of  the  ver}>-  features,  jealously  in  the  interests  of 
Dudley ;  and  recollecting,  too,  that  she  had  once  prayed  for 
one  exactly  resembling  Dartrey  Fenellan  to  be  her  Nesta's 
husband.  But,  as  she  would  have  said,  that  was  before  the 
indiscretion  of  her  girl  had  shown  her  to  require  for  her 
husband  a  man  whose  character  and  station  guaranteed 
protection  instead  of  inciting  to  rebellion.  And  Dartrey,  the 
loved  and  prized,  was  often  in  the  rebel  ranks ;  he  was  dis- 
satisfied with  matters  as  they  are ;  was  restless  for  action, 
angry  with  a  country  denying  it  to  him ;  he  made  enemies, 
he  would  surely  bring  'down  inquiries  about  Nesta's  head, 
and  cause  tho  forgotten  or  quiescent  to  be  stirred ;  he  would 


372  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

scarcely  be  the  needed  hand  for  such  a  quiver  of  the  light- 
nings as  Nesta  was. 

Dartrey  read  Nataly's  brows.  This  unwonted  uncomeli- 
ness  of  hers  was  an  indication  to  one  or  other  of  our  dusky 
pits,  not  a  revealing. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT. 

He  read  her  more  closely  when  Arlington  brought  in  the 
brown  paper  envelope  of  the  wires — to  which  the  mate  of 
Victor  ought  to  have  become  accustomed  She  took  it;  her 
eyelids  closed,  and  her  features  were  driven  to  whiteness. 
"  Only  these  telegrams,"  she  said,  in  apology. 

"Lakelands  on  fire?"  Dartrey  murmured  to  Nesta;  and 
she  answered  :  "  I  should  not  be  sorry." 

Nataly  coldly  asked  her  why  she  would  not  be  sorry. 

Dartrey  interposed :  "  I'm  sure  she  thinks  Lakelands 
worries  her  mother." 

'•  That  ranks  low  among  the  worries,"  Nataly  sighed, 
opening  the  envelope. 

Nesta  touched  her  arm :  "  Mother !  even  before  Captain 
Dartrey,  if  you  will  let  me!" — she  turned  to  him: — "before" 
...  at  the  end  of  her  breath  she  i-aid :  "  Dartrey  Fenellan. 
Yon  shall  see  my  whole  heart,  mother." 

Her  mother  looked  from  her  at  him. 

"  Victor  returns  by  the  last  train.  He  telegraphs,  that  he 
dines  with "     She  handed  the  paper  to  Dartrey. 

"  Marsett,"  he  read  aloud ;  and  she  flushed  ;  she  was  angry 
with  him  for  not  knowing,  that  the  name  was  a  term  of 
opprobrium  flung  at  her. 

u  It's  to  tell  you  he  has  done  what  he  thought  good,"  said 
Dartrey.  "  Tn  other  words,  as  I  interpret,  he  has  completed 
hi>  daughter's  work.  So  we  won't  talk  about  it  till  he  comes. 
You  have  no  company  this  evening?" 

"  Oh  !  there  is  a  pause  to-night !  It's  nearly  as  unceasing 
as  your  brother  Simeon's  old  French  lady  in  the  ronde  with 
her  young  bridegroom,  till  they  danced  her  to  pieces.     I  do 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT.   373 

get  now  and  then  an  hour's  repose,"  Nataly  added,  with  a 
vision  springing  up  of  the  person  to  whom  the  story  had 
applied. 

44  My  dear,  you  are  a  good  girl  to  call  me  Dartrey,"  the 
owner  of  the  name  said  to  Nes:a. 

Nataly  saw  thera  both  alert,  in  the  terrible  manner  peculiar 
to  both,  for  the  directest  of  the  bare  statements.  She  could 
have  protested,  that  her  love  of  truth  was  on  an  equality 
with  theirs;  and  certainly,  that  her  regard  for  decency 
was  livelier.  Pass  the  deficiency  in  a  man.  But  a  girl  who 
could  speak,  by  allusion,  of  Mrs.  Marsett — of  the  existence 
of  a  xMrs.  Marsett — in  the  presence  of  a  man :  and  he  excusing, 
encouraging :  and  this  girl  her  own  girl ; — it  seemed  to  her, 
that  the  world  reeled  ;  she  could  hardly  acknowledge  the 
girl ;  save  under  the  penitential  admission  of  her  sin's  having 
found  her  out. 

She  sent  Nesta  to  her  room  when  they  went  upstairs  to 
dress,  unable  to  endure  her  presence  after  seeing  her  show 
a  placid  satisfaction  at  Dartrey 's  nod  to  the  request  for  him 
to  sleep  in  the  house  that  night.  It  was  not  at  all  a  gleam 
of  pleasure,  hardly  an  expression ;  it  was  a  manner  of  saying, 
One  drop  more  in  my  cup  of  good  fortune  ! — an  absurd  and 
an  offensive  exhibition  of  silly  optimism  of  the  young,  blind 
that  they  are ! 

For  were  it  known,  and  surely  the  happening  of  it  would 
"be  known,  that  Dudley  Sowerby  had  shaken  off  the  Nesta  of 
no  name,  who  was  the  abominable  Mrs.  Marsett's  friend,  a 
whirlwind  with  a  trumpet  would  sweep  them  into  the  wilder- 
ness on  a  blast  frightfuller  than  any  ever  heard. 

Nataly  had  a  fit  of  weeping  for  want  of  the  girl's 
embrace,  against  whom  her  door  was  jealously  locked.  She 
hoped  those  two  would  talk  much,  madly  if  they  liked, 
during  dinner,  that  she  might  not  be  sensible,  through  any 
short  silence,  of  the  ardour  animating  them :  especially 
glowing  in  Nesta,  ready  behind  her  quiet  mask  to  come 
brazenly  forth.  But  both  of  them  were  mercilessly  ardent; 
and  a  sickness  of  the  fear,  that  they  might  fall  on  her  to 
capture  her  and  hurry  her  along  with  them  perforce  of  the 
allayed,  once  fatal,  inflammable  element  in  herself,  shook 
the  warmth  from  her  limbs :  causing  her  to  say  to  herself 
aloud  in  a  ragged  hoarseness,  very  strangely :  Every  thought 
of  mine  now  has  a  physical  effect  on  me! 


374  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

They  had  not  been  two  minutes  together  when  she 
descended  to  them,  let  she  saw  the  girl's  heart  brimming, 
either  with  some  word  spoken  to  her  or  for  joy  of  an  un- 
maidenly  confession.  During  dinner  they  talked,  without 
distressful  pauses.  Whatever  said,  whatever  done,  was 
manifestly  another  drop  in  Nesta's  foolish  happy  cup.  Could 
it  be  all  because  Dartrey  Fenellan  countenanced  her  ac- 
quaintance with  that  woman  ?  The  mother  had  lost  hold 
of  her.     The  tortured  mother  had  lost  hold  of  herself. 

Dartrey  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  begged  to  hear  the 
contralto;  and  Nataly,  refusing,  was  astounded  by  the 
admission  in  her  blank  mind  of  the  truth  of  man's  list  of 
charges  against  her  sex,  starting  from  their  capriciousness : 
for  she  could  have  sung  in  a  crowded  room,  and  she  had  now 
a  desire  for  company,  for  stolid  company  or  giddy,  an  ocean 
of  it.  This  led  to  her  thinking,  that  the  world  of  serious 
money-getters,  and  feasts,  and  the  dance,  the  luxurious 
displays,  and  the  reverential  Sunday  service,  will  always 
ultimately  prove  itself  right  in  opposition  to  critics  and 
rebels,  and  to  anyone  vainly  trying  to  stand  alone:  and  the 
thought  annihilated  her;  for  she  was  past  the  age  of  the 
beginning  again,  and  no  footing  was  left  for  an  outsider 
not  self-justified  in  being  where  she  stood.  She  heard 
Dartrey 's  praise  of  Nesta's  voice  for  tearing  her  mother's 
bosom  with  notes  of  intolerable  sweetness;  and  it  was  hap 
hazard  irony,  no  doubt;  we  do  not  the  less  bleed  for  the 
accident  of  a  shot. 

At  last,  after  midnight  Victor  arrived. 

Nesta  most  impudently  expected  to  be  allowed  to  remain. 
"Pray,  go,  dear,"  her  mother  said.  Victor  kissed  his  Fredi. 
<k  Some  time  to-morrow,"  said  he ;  and  she  forbore  to  beseech 
him. 

He  stared,  though  mildly,  at  sight  of  her  taking  Dartrey's 
hand  for  the  good-night  and  deliberately  putting  her  lips  to  it. 

Was  she  a  girl  whose  notion  of  rectifying  one  wrong  thing 
done,  was  to  do  another  ?  Nataly  could  merely  observe.  A 
voice  pertaining  to  no  one  present,  said  in  her  ear : — Mothers 
have  publicly  slapped  their  daughters'  faces  for  less  than 
that ! — It  was  the  voice  of  her  incapacity  to  cope  with  the 
girl.  She  watched  Nesta's  passage  from  the  room,  somewhat 
affected  by  the  simple  bearing  for  which  she  was  reproach- 
ing her. 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT.   375 

"And  our  poor  darling  has  not  seen  a  mountain  this 
year!"  Victor  exclaimed,  to  have  mentionable  grounds  for 
pitying  his  girl.  "  I  promised  Fredi  she  should  never  count 
a  year  without  Highlands  or  Alps.  You  remember,  mama? 
— down  in  the  West  Highlands.  Fancy  the  dear  bit  of 
bundle,  Dartrey ! — we  had  laid  her  in  her  bed ;  she  was 
about  seven  or  eight ;  and  there  she  lay  wide  awake. — 
*  What's  Fredi  thinking  of?' — 'I'm  thinking  of  the  tops  of 
the  mountains  at  night,  dada.' — She  would  climb  them  now  ; 
she  has  the  legs." 

Nataly  said :  "  You  have  some  report  to  make.  You  dined 
with  those  people?" 

"  The  Marsetts  :  yes  : — well-suited  cou[>le  enough.  It's  to 
happen  before  Winter  ends — at  once ;  before  Christinas  ; 
positively  before  next  Spring.  Fredi's  doing!  He  has  to 
manage,  arrange. — She's  a  good-looking  woman,  good  height, 
well-rounded ;  well-behaved,  too  :  she  won't  make  a  bad 
Lady  Marsett.  Every  time  that  woman  spoke  of  our  girl, 
the  tears  jumped  to  her  eyelids." 

"Come  to  me  before  you  go  to  bed,"  Nataly  said,  rising, 
her  voice  foundering ;  "  Good  night,  Dartrey." 

She  turned  to  the  door;  she  could  not  trust  herself  to 
shake  hands  with  composure.  Not  only  was  it  a  nauseous 
mixture  she  was  forced  to  gulp  from  Victor,  it  burned  like  a 
pouson. 

.  "Keally  Fredi's  doing— chiefly,"  said  Victor,  as  soon  as 
Dartrey  and  he  were  alone,  comfortably  settled  in  the 
smoking-room.  "  I  played  the  man  of  pomp  with  Marsett — 
good  heavy  kind  of  creature :  attached  to  the  woman.  She's 
the  better  horse,  as  far  as  brains  go.  Good  enough  Lady 
Marsett.  I  harped  on  Major  Worrell :  my  daughter  insulted. 
He  knew  of  it — spoke  of  you  properly.  The  man  offered  all 
apologies;  has  told  the  Major  he  is  no  gentleman,  not  a  fit 
associate  for  gentlemen  : — quite  so  : — and  has  cut  him  dead. 
Will  marry  her,  as  I  said,  make  her  as  worthy  as  he  can  of 
the  honour  of  my  daughter's  acquaintance.  Rather  comical 
grimace,  when  he  vowed  he'd  fasten  the  tie.  He  doesn't 
like  marriage.  But  he  can't  give  her  up.  And  she's  for 
patronizing  the  institution.  But  she  is  ready  to  say  good- 
bye to  him :  *  rather  than  see  the  truest  lady  in  the  world 
insulted : ' — her  words.  And  so  he  swallows  his  dose  f<»i 
heal  ih,  and  looks  a  trifle  sourish.     Antecedents,  I  suppose : 


376  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

has  to  stomach  them.  But  if  a  man's  fond  of  a  woman — if 
he  knows  he  saves  her  from  slipping  lowei — and  it's  an 
awful  world,  for  us  to  let  a  woman  be  under  its  wheels : — 1 
say,  a  woman  who  has  a  man  to  lean  on,  unless  she's  as 
downright  corrupt  as  two  or  three  of  the  men  we've  known : 
— upon  my  word,  Dartrey,  I  come  round  to  some  of  your 
ideas  on  these  matters.  It's  this  girl  of  mine,  this  wee  bit  <»f 
girl  in  her  little  nightshirt  with  the  frill,  astonishes  me 
most: — 'thinking  of  the  tops  of  the  mountains  at  night  I ' 
She  has  positively  done  the  whole  of  this  work— main  part. 
I  smiled  when  I  left  the  house,  to  have  to  own  our  little 
Fredi  starting  us  all  on  the  road.  It  seems,  Marsett  had 
sworn  he  would;  amorous  vow,  you  know;  he  never  came 
nearer  to  doing  it.  I  hope  it's  his  belter  mind  now;  I  do 
hope  the  man  won't  have  cause  to  regret  it.  He  speaks  of 
Nesta — sort  of  rustic  tone  of  awe.  Mrs.  Marsett  has  impressed 
him.  He  expects  the  title  soon,  will  leave  the  ai  my — the 
poor  plucked  British  army,  as  you  call  it! — and  lead  the  life 
of  a  country  squire :  hunting  !  Well,  it's  not  only  the  army, 
it's  over  Great  Britain,  with  this  infernal  wealth  of  ours  ! — 
and  all  for  pleasure — eh? — or  Paradise  lost  for  a  sugar  plum! 
Eh,  Dartrey?  Upon  my  word,  it  appears  to  me,  Esau's  the 
Englishman,  Jacob  the  German,  of  these  times.  I  wonder 
old  Colney  hasn't  said  it.  It'  we're  not  plucked,  as  your 
regiments  are  of  the  officers  who  have  learnt  their  work, 
we're  emasculated . — the  nation's  half  made-up  of  the  idle 
and  the  servants  of  the  idle." 

"  Ay,  and  your  country  squires  and  your  manufacturers 
contrive  to  give  the  arm\  a  body  of  consumptive  louts  fit  for 
nothing  else  than  to  take  the  shilling — and  not  worth  it," 
said  Dartrey. 

"Sounds  like  old  Colney,"  Victor  remarked  to  himself. 
"But,  believe  me,  I'm  ashamed  of  the  number  of  servants 
who  wait  on  me.  It  wouldn't  so  much  matter,  as  Skepsey 
says,  if  they  were  trained  to  arms  and  self-respect.  That 
little  fellow  Skepsey 's  closer  to  the  right  notion,  and  the 
right  practice,  too,  than  any  of  us.  With  his  Matilda 
Pridden  I  He  has  jumped  out  of  himself  to  the  proper  idea 
of  women,  too.  And  there's  a  man  who  has  been  up  three 
times  before  the  magistrates,  and  is  considered  a  disorderly 
subject — one  among  the  best  of  English  citizens,  I  declare  I 
I  never  think  of  Skepsey  without  the  most  extraordinary, 


A   CHAPTER   IN   THE    SHADOW  OF   MRS.    MARSETT.       377 

witless  kind  of  envy — as  if  he  were  putting  in  action  an 
idea  I  once  had  and  never  quite  got  hold  of  again.  The 
match  for  him  is  Fredi.  She  threatens  to  be  just  as  devoted, 
just  as  simple,  as  he.  I  positively  doubt  whether  any  of  us 
could  stop  her,  if  she  had  set  herself  to  do  a  thing  she 
thought  right.'* 

"  1  should  not  like  to  think  our  trying  it  possible,"  said 
Dartrey. 

"All  very  well,  but  it's  a  rock  ahead.  We  shall  have  to 
alter  our  course,  my  friend.  You  know,  I  dined  with  that 
eoup'.e,  after  the  private  twenty  minutes  with  Marsett : — he 
formally  propounded  the  invitation,  as  we  were  close  on  his 
hour,  rather  late  :  and  I  wanted  to  make  the  woman  happy, 
besides  putting  a  seal  of  cordiality  on  his  good  intentions — 
politic!  And  subsequently  I  heard  from  her,  that — you'll 
think  nothing  of  it ! — Fredi  promised  to  stand  by  her  at  the 
altar." 

Dartrey  said,  shrugging:  "She  needn't  do  that." 

"So  we  may  say.  You're  dealing  with  Ne*ta  Victoria. 
Spare  me  a  contest  with  that  girl,  I  undertake  to  manage 
any  man  or  woman  living." 

"  When  the  thing  to  be  done  is  thought  right  by  her." 

"  But  can  we  always  trust  her  judgement,  my  dear 
Dartrey?" 

44  In  this  case,  she  would  argue,  that  her  resolution  to  keep 
her  promise  would  bind  or  help  to  bind  JMaisett  to  fulfil  his 
engagement." 

"  Odd,  her  mother  has  turned  dead  round  in  favour  of  that 
fellow  Dudley  Sowerby!  I  don't  complain;  it  suits;  but 
one  thinks — eh? — women  !  " 

"  Well,  yes,  one  thinks  or  should  think,  that  if  you  insist 
on  having  women  rooted  to  the  bed  of  the  river,  they'll  veer 
with  the  tides,  like  water-weeds,  and  no  wonder." 

"  Your  heterodoxy  on  that  subject  is  a  mania,  Dartrey. 
We  can't  have  women  independent." 

"  Then  don't  be  exclaiming  about  their  vagaries." 

Victor  mused:  "It's  wonderful:  that  little  girl  of  mine! 
— good  height  now :  but  what  a  head  she  has !  Oh,  she'll 
listen  to  reason :  only  mark  what  I  say : — with  that  quiet 
air  of  hers,  the  husband,  if  a  young  fellow,  will  imagine 
she's  the  most  docile  of  wives  in  the  world.  And  as  to  wife, 
I'm  not  of  the  contrary  opinion.    But  qua  individual  female, 


878  ONE   OF   OUE   CONQUERORS. 

supposing  her  to  have  laid  fast  hold  of  an  idea  of  duty,  it's 
he  who'll  have  to  turn  the  corner  second,  if  they're  to  trot 
in  the  yoke  together.  Or  it  may  be  an  idea  of  service  to  a 
friend— or  to  her  sex!  That  Mrs.  Marsett  says  she  feels  for 
— 'bleeds'  for  her  sex.  The  poor  woman  didn't  show  to 
advantage  with  me,  because  she  was  in  a  fever  to  please : — 
talks  in  jerks,  hot  phrases.  She  holds  herself  well.  At  the 
end  of  the  dinner  she  behaved  better.  Odd,  you  can  teanh 
women  with  hints  and  a  lead.  But  Marsett's  Marsett  to  the 
end.  Eather  touching  ! — the  poor  fellow  said  :  Deuce  of  a 
bad  look»out  for  me  if  Judith  doesn't  have  a  child !  First- 
rate  sportsman,  I  hear.  He  should  have  thought  of  his 
family  earlier.  You  know,  Dartrey,  the  case  is  to  be  argued 
for  the  family  as  well.  You  won't  listen.  And  for  Society 
too !     Off  you  go." 

A  battery  was  opened  on  that  wall  of  composite. 

"Ah,  well,"  said  Victor.  "But  I  may  have  to  beg  your 
help,  as  to  the  so-called  promise  to  stand  at  the  altar.  I 
don't  mention  it  upstairs." 

He  went  to  Natal  y's  room. 

She  was  considerately  treated,  and  was  aware  of  being 
dandled,  that  she  might  have  sleep. 

She  consented  to  it,  in  a  loathing  of  the  topic. — Those 
women  invade  us — we  cannot  keep  them  out !  was  her 
/  inward  cry :  with  a  reverberation  of  the  unfailing  accompani- 
[    ment : — The  world  holds  you  for  one  of  them ! 

Victor  tasked  her  too  much  when  his  perpetual  readiness 
to  doat  upon  his  girl  for  whatever  she  did,  set  him  exalting 
Nesta's  conduct.  She  thought :  Was  Nesta  so  sympathetic 
with  her  mother  of  late  by  reason  of  a  moral  insensibility  to 
the  offence? 

This  was  her  torture  through  the  night  of  a  labouring 
heart,  that  travelled  to  one  dull  shock,  again  and  again 
repeated  : — the  apprehended  sound,  in  fact,  of  Dudley 
Sowerby's  knock  at  the  street  door.  Or  sometimes  a  footman 
handed  her  his  letter,  courteously  phrased  to  withdraw  from 
the  alliance.  Or  else  he  came  to  a  scene  with  Nesta,  and 
her  mother  was  dragged  into  it,  and  the  intolerable  subject 
steamed  about  her.  The  girl  was  visioned  as  deadly.  She 
might  be  indifferent  to  the  protection  of  Dudley's  name. 
Robust,  sanguine,  Victor's  child,  she  might — her  mother 
listened  to  a  devil's  whisper : — but  no ;  Nesta's  aim  was  at 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT.   379 

the  heights;  she  was  pure  in  mind  as  in  body.  No,  but  the 
world  would  bring  the  accusation ;  and  the  world  would 
trace  the  cause:  Heredity,  it  would  say.  Would  it  say 
falsely?  Nataly  harped  on  the  interrogation  until  she  felt 
her  existence  dissolving  to  a  dark  stain  of  the  earth,  and  she 
found  herself  wondering  at  the  breath  she  drew,  doubting 
that  another  would  follow,  speculating  on  the  cruel  force 
which  keeps  us  to  the  act  of  breathing. — Though  I  could 
draw  wild  blissful  breath  if  I  were  galloping  across  the- 
moors !  her  worn  heart  said  to  her  youth  :  and  out  of  ken  of 
the  world,  I  could  regain  a  portion  of  my  self-esteem. — 
Nature  thereat  renewed  her  old  sustainment  with  gentle 
murmurs,  that  were  supported  by  Dr.  Themison's  account  of 
the  virtuous  married  lady  who  chafed  at  the  yoke  on  behalf 
of  her  sex,  and  deemed  the  independent  union  the  ideal. 
Nataly's  brain  had  a  short  gallop  over  moorland.  It  brought 
her  face  to  face  with  Victor's  girl,  and  she  dropped  once 
more  to  her  remorse  in  herself  and  her  reproaches  of  Nesta. 
The  girl  had  inherited  from  her  father  something  of  the 
cataract's  force  which  won  its  way  by  catching  or  by 
mastering,  uprooting,  ruining ! 

In  the  morning  she  was  heavily  asleep.  Victor  left  word 
with  Nesta,  that  the  dear  mother  was  not  to  be  disturbed. 
Consequently,  when  Dudley  called  to  see  Mrs.  Victor  Radnor, 
he  was  informed  that  Miss  Radnor  would  receive  him. 

Their  interview  lasted  an  hour. 

Dudley  came  to  Victor  in  the  City  about  luncheon  time. 
His  perplexity  of  countenance  was  eloquent.  He  had,  before 
seeing  the  young  lady,  digested  an  immense  deal :  more,  as 
it  seemed  to  him,  than  any  English  gentleman  should  be 
asked  to  consume.  She  now  referred  him  to  her  father,  who 
had  spent  a  day  in  Brighton,  and  would,  she  said,  explain 
whatever  there  was  to  be  explained.  But  she  added,  that  if 
she  was  expected  to  abandon  a  friend,  she  could  not.  Dudley 
had  argued  with  her  upon  the  nature  of  friendship,  the 
measurement  of  its  various  dues ;  he  had  lectured  on  the 
choice  of  friends,  the  impossibility  for  young  ladies,  neces- 
sarily inexperienced,  to  distinguish  the  right  class  of  friends, 
the  dangers  they  ran  in  selecting  friends  unwarranted  by 
the  stamp  of  honourable  families. 

"  And  what  did  Fredi  say  to  that  ?  "  Victor  inquired. 

"Miss  Radnor  said— J  may  be  dense,  I  cannot  compre* 


380  ONE   OP   OUB   CONQUEROKS. 

hend — that  the  precepts  were  suitable  for  seminaries  of 
Pharisees.  When  it  is  a  question  of  a  young  lady  associating 
with  a  notorious  woman  !  " 

"  Not  notorious.  You  spoil  your  case  if  you  '  speak  ex- 
tremely/ as  a  friend  says.  I  saw  her  yesterday.  She 
worships  '  Miss  Kadnor.'  " 

"  Nesta  will  know  when  she  is  older ;  she  will  thank  me," 
Dudley  said  hurriedly.  "  As  it  is  at  present,  I  may  reckon, 
I  hope,  that  the  association  ceases.  Her  name — I  have  to 
consider  my  family." 

"  Good  anchorage  !  You  must  fight  it  out  with  the  girl. 
And  depend  upon  this — you're  not  the  poorer  for  being  the 
husband  of  a  girl  of  character ;  unless  you  try  to  bridle  her. 
She  belongs  to  her  time.  I  don't  mind  owning  to  yon,  she 
has  given  me  a  lead. — Fredi  '11  be  merry  to-night.  Herd's  a 
letter  I  have  from  the  Sanfredini,  dated  Milan,  fresh  this 
morning;  invitation  to  bring  the  god-child  to  her  villa  on 
Como  in  May ;  desirous  to  embrace  her.  She  wrote  to  the 
oflice.  Not  a  word  of  her  duque.  She  has  pitched  him  to  the 
winds.  You  may  like  to  carry  it  off  to  Fiedi  and  please 
her." 

"  I  have  business,"  Dudley  replied. 

"  Away  to  it,  then  !  "  said  Yictor.  "  You  stand  by  me? — 
we  expect  our  South  London  borough  to  be  Open  in  January  ; 
early  next  year,  at  least;  may  be  February.  You  have 
family  interest  there." 

"Personally,  I  will  do  my  best,"  Dudley  said;  and  he 
escaped,  feeling,  with  the  universal  censor's  angry  spite,  that 
the  revolutions  of  the  world  had  made  one  of  the  wealthiest 
of  City  men  the  head  of  a  set  of  Bohemians.  And  there  are 
eulogists  of  the  modern  time  !  And  the  man's  daughter  was 
declared  to  belong  to  it!  A  visit  in  May  to  the  Italian  can- 
tatriee  separated  from  her  husband,  would  render  the  maiden 
an  accomplished  flinger  of  caps  over  the  windmills. 

At  home  Yictor  discovered,  that  there  was  not  much  more 
than  a  truce  between  Ne^ta  and  Nataly.  He  had  a  medical 
hint  from  Dr.  Themison,  and  he  counselled  his  girl  to  humour 
her  mother  as  far  as  could  be:  particularly  in  relation  to 
Dudley,  whom  Nataly  now,  woman-like,  after  opposing, 
strongly  favoured.  How  are  we  ever  to  get  a  clue  to  the 
labyrinthine  convolutions  and  changeful  motives  of  the  sex ! 
Dar trey's   theories  were   absurd.     Did  Nataly  think   them 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT.   381 

dangerous  for  a  young  woman?     The  guess  hinted  at  a  clue 
of  some  sort  to  the  secret  of  her  veering. 

"  Mr.  Sowerby  left  me  with  an  adieu,"  said  Nesta. 

"  Mr.  Sowerby  !  My  dear,  he  is  bound,  bound  in  honour, 
bound  at  heart.     You  did  not  dismiss  him?  " 

l*  I  repeated  the  word  he  used  I  thought  of  mother.  The 
blood  leaves  her  cheeks  at  a  disappointment  now.  She  has 
taken  to  like  him." 

"  Why,  you  like  him ! " 

"  I  could  not  vow." 

"  Tush." 

"  Ah,  don't  press  me,  dada.  But  you  will  see,  he  has  dis- 
engaged himself." 

He  had  done  it,  though  not  in  formal  speech.  Slow  di 
gestion  of  his  native  antagonism  to  these  Bohemians,  to  say 
nothing  of  his  judicial  condemnation  of  them,  brought  him 
painfully  round  to  the  writing  of  a  letter  to  Nataly ;  cun- 
ningly addressed  to  the  person  on  whom  his  instinct  told  him 
he  had  the  strongest  hold. 

She  schooled  herself  to  discuss  the  detested  matter  forming 
Dudley's  grievance  and  her  own  with  Nesta;  and  it  was 
a  woeful  half-hour  fur  them.  But  Nataly  was  not  the 
weeper. 

Another  interview  ensued  between  Nesta  and  her  suitor. 
Dudley  bore  no  resemblance  to  Mr.  Barmby,  who  refused  to 
take  the  word  no  from  her,  and  had  taken  it,  and  had  gone 
to  do  holy  work,  for  which  she  revered  him.  Dudley  took 
the  word,  leaving  her  to  imagine  freedom,  until  once  more 
her  mother  or  her  father,  inspired  by  him,  came  interceding, 
her  mother  actually  supplicating.  So  that  the  reality  of 
Dudley's  love  rose  to  conception  like  a  London  dawn  over 
Nesta ;  ar.d  how,  honourably,  decently,  positively,  to  sever 
herself  from  it,  grew  to  be  an  ill-visaged  problem.  She 
glanced  in  soul  at  Dartrey  Fenellan  for  help;  she  had  her 
wild  thoughts.  Having  once  called  him  Dartrey,  the  virginal 
barrier  to  thoughts  was  broken ;  and  but  for  love  of  her 
father,  for  love  and  pity  of  her  mother,  she  would  have  ven- 
tured the  step  to  make  the  man  who  had  her  whole  being  in 
charge  accept  or  reject  her.  JSothing  else  appeared  in  pros- 
pect. Her  father  and  mother  were  urgently  one  to  favour 
Dudley ;  and  the  sensitive  gentleman  presented  himself  to 
receive  his  wound  and  to  depart  with  it.     But  always  he 


382  ONE   OF   OUR  CONQUERORS. 

returned.  At  last,  as  if  tinder  tuition,  he  refrained  from 
provoking  a  wound ;  he  stood  there  to  win  her  upon  any 
terms  ;  and  he  was  a  handsome  figure,  acknowledged  by  the 
damsel  to  be  increasing  in  good  looks  as  more  and  more  his 
pretensions  beca  »»e  distasteful  to  her.  The  slight  east  of 
sourness  on  his  lower  features  had  almost  vanished,  his 
nature  seemed  to  have  enlarged.  He  complimented  her  for 
her  "  generous  benevolence,"  vaguely,  yet  with  evident  sin- 
cereness ;  he  admitted,  that  the  modern  world  is  "  attempt- 
ing difficulties  with  at  least  commendable  intentions ;  "  and 
that  the  position  of  women  demands  improvement,  con- 
sideration for  them  also.  He  said  feelingly :  "  They  have 
to  bear  extraordinary  burdens !  "     There  he  stopped. 

The  sharp  intelligence  fronting  him  understood,  that  this 
compassionate  ejaculation  was  the  point  where  she,  too,  must 
cry  halt.  He  had,  however — still  under  tuition,  perhaps — 
withdrawn  his  voice  from  the  pursuit  of  her;  and  so  she  in 
gratitude  silenced  her  critical  mind  beneath  a  smooth  conceit 
of  her  having  led  him  two  steps  to  a  broader  tolerance. 
Susceptible  as  she  was,  she  did  not  influence  him  without 
being  affected  herself  in  other  things  than  her  vanity  :  his 
prudishness  affected  her.  Only  when  her  heart  flamed  did 
she  disdain  that  real  haven  of  refuge,  with  its  visionary 
mount  of  superiority,  offered  by  Society  to  its  elect,  in  the 
habit  of  ignoring  the  sins  it  fosters  under  cloak; — not  less 
than  did  the  naked  barbaric  time,  and  far  more  to  the  vitia- 
tion of  the  soul.  He  fancied  he  was  moulding  her ;  there- 
fore winning  her.  It  followed,  that  he  had  the  lover's  desire 
for  assurance  of  exclusive  possession ;  and  reflecting,  that  he 
had  greatly  pardoned,  he  grew  exacting.  He  mentioned  his 
objections  to  some  of  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan's  ideas. 

Nesta  replied :  "  I  have  this  morning  had  two  letters  to 
make  me  happy." 

A  provoking  evasion.  He  would  rather  have  seen  an- 
tagonism bridle  and  stiffen  her  figure.  "Is  one  of  them 
from  that  gentleman  ?  " 

"  One  is  from  my  dear  friend  Louise  de  Seilles.  She  comes 
to  me  early  next  month." 

'*  The  other  ?  " 

"  The  other  is  also  from  a  friend." 

"  A  dear  friend  ?  " 

"  Not  so  dear.     Her  letter  gives  me  happiness.'' 


A  CHAPTER  IN  THE  SHADOW  OF  MRS.  MARSETT.   383 

"She  writes — not  from  France:  from  .  .  .  ?  you  tempt 
me  to  guess." 

"  She  writes  to  tell  me,  that  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan  has 
helped  her  in  a  way  to  make  her  eternally  thankful." 

*'  The  place  she  writes  from  is  .  .  .  ?  " 

The  drag  of  his  lips  betrayed  his  enlightenment.  He  in- 
sisted on  doubting.     He  demanded  assurance. 

"  It  matters  in  no  degree,"  she  said. 

Dudley  "  thought  himself  excusable  for  inquiring." 

She  bowed  gently. 

The  stings  and  scorpions  and  degrading  itches  of  this  nest 
of  wealthy  Bohemians  enraged  him. 

"  Are  you — I  beg  to  ask — are  you  still : — I  can  hardly 
think  it — Nesta  ! — I  surely  have  a  claim  to  advise  : — it 
cannot  be  with  your  mother's  consent : — in  communication, 
in  correspondence  with  .  .  .  ? " 

Again  she  bowed  her  head  ;  saying  :  "  It  is  true." 

"  With  that  person  ?  " 

He  could  not  but  look  the  withering  disgust  of  the  modern 
world  in  a  conservative  gentleman  who  has  been  lured  to  go 
with  it  a  little  way,  only  to  be  bitten.  "  I  decline  to  believe 
it,"  he  said  with  forcible  sound. 

"  She  is  married,"  was  the  rather  shameless,  exasperating 
answer. 

"Married  or  not!"  he  cried,  and  murmured:  "I  have 
borne — .  These  may  be  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan's  ideas  ;  they 
are  not  mine.  I  have — Something  at  least  is  due  to  me.  Ask 
any  lady  : — there  are  clergymen,  I  know,  clergymen  who  are 
for  uplifting — quite  right,  but  not  associating: — to  call  one 
of  them  a  friend  !     Ask  any  lady,  any  !     Your  mother  ..." 

"  I  beg  you  will  not  distress  my  mother,"  said  Kesta. 

"  I  beg  to  know  whether  this  correspondence  is  to  con- 
tinue?" said  Dudley. 

"  All  my  life,  if  I  do  not  feel  dishonoured  by  it." 

"  You  are."  He  added  hastily :  "  Counsels  of  prudence  :— 
there  is  not  a  lady  living  who  would  tell  you  otherwise.  At 
all  events,  in  public  opinion,  if  it  were  known — and  it  would 
certainly  be  known, — a  lady,  wife  or  spinster,  would  suffer 
• — would  not  escape  the — at  least  shadow  of  defilement  from 
relationship,  any  degree  of  intimacy  with  .  .  .  hard  words 
are  wholesome  in  such  a  case : — *  touch  pitch/  yes  !  My 
sense  is  coherent." 


384  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"  Quite,"  said  Nesta. 

"  And  you  do  not  agree  with  me  ?  " 

"  I  do  not." 

"  Do  you  pretend  to  be  as  able  to  judge  as  I  ?" 

*'  In  this  instance,  better." 

"  Then  I  retire.  I  cannot  retain  my  place  here.  Ton 
may  depend  upon  it,  the  world  is  not  wrong  when  it  forbids 
young  ladies  to  have  cognizance  of  women  leading  disoiderly 
lives." 

44  Only  the  women,  Mr.  Sowerby  ?  " 

"  Men,  too,  of  course." 

"  You  do  not  exclude  the  men  from  Society." 

"  Oh  !  one  reads  that  kind  of  argument  in  books." 

"  Oh !  the  worthy  books,  then.  I  would  read  them,  if  I 
could  find  them." 

"  They  are  banned  by  self-respecting  readers." 

"It  grieves  me  to  think  differently." 

Dudley  looked  on  this  fair  girl,  as  yet  innocent  girl ;  and 
contrasting  her  with  the  foulness  of  the  subject  she  dared 
discuss,  it  seemed  to  him,  that  a  world  which  did  not  puff 
at  her  and  silence,  if  not  extinguish,  was  in  a  state  of 
liquefaction. 

Remembering  his  renewed  repentances  in  absence,  he 
said :  "I  do  hope  you  may  come  to  see,  that  the  views 
shared  by  your  mother  and  me  are  not  erroneous." 

"  But  do  not  distress  her,"  Nesta  implored  him.  *'  She  is 
not  well.  When  she  has  grown  stronger,  her  kind  heart 
will  move  her  to  receive  the  lady,  so  that  she  may  not  be 
deprived  of  the  society  of  good  women.  I  shall  hope  she 
will  not  disapprove  of  me.     I  cannot  forsake  a  friend." 

"  I  beg  to  say  good-bye,"  said  Dudley. 

She  had  seen  a  rigidity  smite  him  as  she  spoke ;  and  so 
little  startling  was  it,  that  she  might  have  fancied  it 
expected,  save  for  her  knowing  herself  too  serious  to  have 
played  at  wiles  to  gain  her  ends. 

He  "  wished  her  prudent  advisers." 

She  thanked  him.  "  In  a  few  days,  Louise  de  Seilles  will 
be  here." 

A  Frenchwoman  and  Papist  1  was  the  interjection  of  his 
twist  of  brows. 

Surely  I  must  now  be  free  ?  she  thought  when  he  had 
oovered  his  farewell  under  a  salutation  legretfulm  frostiness. 


AN  EXPIATION.  885 

A  week  later,  she  had  the  embrace  of  her  Louise,  and 
Armandme  was  made  happy  with  a  piece  of  Parisian 
riband. 

Winter  was  rapidly  in  passage :  changes  were  visible 
everywhere;  Earth  and  House  of  Commons  and  the  South 
London  borough  exhibited  them;  Mrs.  Burinan  was  the 
sole  exception.  To  the  stupefaction  of  physicians,  in  a 
manner  to  make  a  sane  man  ask  whether  she  was  not  being 
retained  as  an  instrument  for  one  of  the  darker  purposes 
of  Providence — and  where  are  we  standing  if  we  ask  such 
things? — she  held  on  to  her  thread  of  life. 

February  went  by.  And  not  a  word  from  Themison; 
nor  from  Carling,  nor  from  the  Rev.  Groseman  Buttermore, 
nor  from  Jarniman.  That  is  to  say,  the  two  former  accepted 
invitations  to  grand  dinners ;  the  two  latter  acknowledged 
contributions  to  funds  in  which  they  were  interested ;  but 
they  had  apparently  grown  to  consider  Mrs.  Burman  as  an 
establishment,  one  of  our  fixtures.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
was  nothing  to  be  feared  from  her.  Lakelands  feared 
nothing:  the  entry  into  Lakelands  was  decreed  for  the 
middle  of  April.  Those  good  creatures  enclosed  the  poor 
worn  a  u  and  nourished  her  on  comfortable  fiction.  So  the 
death  of  the  member  for  the  South  London  borough  (fifteen 
years  younger  than  the  veteran  in  maladies)  was  not  to  be 
called  premature,  and  could  by  no  possibility  lead  to  an 
exposure  of  the  private  history  of  the  candidate  for  hia 
vacant  seat. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

AN   EXPIATION. 

Nataly  had  fallen  to  be  one  of  the  solitary  who  have  no 
companionship  save  with  the  wound  they  nurse,  to  chafe 
it  rather  than  try  at  healing.  So  rational  a  mind  as  she 
had  was  not  long  in  outliving  mistaken  impressions ;  she 
ould  distinguish  her  girl's  feeling,  and  her  aim  ;  she  could 
speak  on  the  subject  with  Dartrey;  and  still  her  wound 
bled  on.  Louise  de  Seilks  comforted  her  partly,  through  an 
exaltation  of  Nesta.     Mademoiselle,  however,  by  mems  of  a 

2c 


836  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

change  of  tone  and  look  when  Dudley  Sowerby  and  Da r trey 
l^enellan  were  the  themes,  showed  a  too  pronounced  pre- 
ference of  the  more  unstable  one  : — or  rather,  the  man 
adventurous  out  of  the  world's  highways,  whose  image,  as 
husband  of  such  a  daughter  as  hers,  smote  the  wounded 
mother  with  a  chillness.  Mademoiselle's  occasional  thrill 
of  fervency  in  an  allusion  to  Dartrey,  might  have  tempted 
a  suspicious  woman  to  indulge  suppositions,  accounting  for 
the  young  Frenchwoman's  novel  tenderness  to  England,  of 
which  Nesta  proudly,  very  happily,  boasted.  The  suspicion 
proposed,  itself,  and  was  rejected:  for  not  even  the  fever  of 
an  insane  body  could  influence  Nataly's  generous  character, 
to  le+,  her  moods  divert  and  command  her  thoughts  of 
persons. 

Her  thoughts  were  at  this,  time  singularly  lucid  upon 
everything  about  her;  with  the  one  exception  of  the  reason 
why  she  had  come  to  favour  Dudley,  and  how  it  was  she 
had  been  smitten  by  that  woman  at  Brighton  to  see  herself 
in  her  position  altogether  with  the  world's  relentless,  unex- 
amining  hard  eyes.  Bitterness  added,  of  Mrs.  Marsett :  She 
is  made  an  honest  woman! — And  there  was  a  strain  of  the 
lower  in  Nataly,  to  reproach  the  girl  for  causing  the  reflec- 
tion to  be  cast  on  the  unwedded.  Otherwise  her  mind  waa 
open  ;  she  was  of  aid  to  Victor  in  his  confusion  over  some 
lost  Idea  he  had  often  touched  on  latterly.  And  she  was 
the  one  who  sent  him  ahead  at  a  trot  under  a  light,  by  say- 
ing: "You  would  found  a  new  and  more  stable  aristocracy 
of  the  contempt  of  luxury  :  "  when  he  talked  of  combatting 
the  Jews  with  a  superior  weapon.  That  being,  in  fact,  as 
Colney  Durance  had  pointed  out  to  him,  the  weapon  of  s< .-lt- 
conquest  used  by  them  "  before  they  fell  away  to  flesh- 
pottery."  Was  it  his  Idea?  He  fancied  an  aching  at  the 
back  of  his.  head  when  he  speculated.  But  his  Idea  had 
been  surpassingly  luminous,  alive,  a  creation ;  and  this  came 
before  him  with  the  yellow  skin  of  a  Theory,  bred,  born  of 
books.  Though  Nataly's  mention  of  the  aristocracy  of  self- 
denying  discipline  struck  a  Lucifer  in  his  darkness. 

Nesta  likewise  helped :  but  more  in  what  she  did  than  in 
what  she  said :  she  spoke  intelligently  enough  to  make  him 
feel  a  certain  increase  of  alarm,  amounting  to  a  cursory 
secret  acknowledgement  of  it,  both  at  her  dealings  wiih. 
Dudley  and  with  himself.      She   so  quietly   displaced    the 


AN   EXPIATION.  387 

lady  visiting  him  at  the  City  offices.  His  girl's  disregard  of 
hostile  weather,  and  her  company,  her  talk,  delighted  him  : 
still  he  remonstrated,  at  her  coming  daily.  She  came :  nor 
was  there  an  instigation  on  the  part  of  her  mother,  clearly 
none :  her  mother  asked  him  once  whether  he  thought  she 
met  the  dreadful  Brighton  woman.  His  Fredi  drove  con- 
s' antly  to  walk  back  beside  him  Westward,  as  he  loved  to 
do  whenever  it  was  practicable;  and  exceeding  the  flattery 
of  his  possession  of  the  gallant  daughter,  her  conversation 
charmed  him  to  forget  a  disappointment  caused  by  the 
defeat  and  entire  exclusion  of  the  lady  visiting  him  so  com- 
plimentarily  for  his  advice  on  stocks,  shares,  mines,  et 
csetera.  The  lady  resisted;  she  was  vanquished,  as  the 
shades  are  displaced  by  simple  apparition  of  daylight.  His 
Fredi  was  like  the  daylight  to  him  ;  she  was  the  very  day- 
light to  his  mind,  whatsoever  their  theme  of  converse:  for 
by  stimulating  that  ready  but  vagrant  mind  to  quit  the 
leash  of  the  powerful  senses  and  be  aethereally  excursive,  she 
gave  him  a  new  enjoyment;  which  led  to  reflections— a 
sounding  of  Nature,  almost  a  question  to  her,  on  the  verge 
of  a  doubt.  Are  we,  in  fact,  harmonious  with  the  Great 
Mother  when  we  yield  to  the  pressure  of  our  natures  for 
indulgence?  Is  she,  when  translated  into  us,  solely  the 
imperious  appetite  ?  Here  was  Fredi,  his  little  Fredi — 
stately  girl  that  she  had  grown,  and  grave,  too,  for  all  her 
fun  and  her  sail  on  wings — lifting  him  to  pleasures  not 
followed  by  clamorous,  and  perfectly  satisfactory,  yet  dis- 
composingly  violent,  appeals  to  Nature.  They  could  be 
vindicated.  Or  could  they,  when  they  would  not  bear  a 
statement  of  the  case?  He  could  not  imagine  himself 
stating  it  namelessly  to  his  closest  friend — not  to  Simeon 
Fenellan.  As  for  speaking  to  Dartrey,  the  notion  took  him 
with  shivers : — Young  Dudley  would  have  seemed  a  more 
possible  confidant : — and  he  represented  the  Puritan  world. 
— And  young  Dudley  was  getting  over  Fredi's  infatuation 
for  the  woman  she  had  rescued  :  he  was  beginning  to  fancy 
he  saw  a  right  enthusiasm  in  it ; — in  the  abstract  ;  if  only 
the  fair  maid  would  drop  an  unseemly  acquaintance.  He 
had  called  at  the  office  to  say  so.  Victor  stammered  the 
plea  for  him. 

"  Never,  dear  father,"  came  the  smooth  answer :  a  shocking 
answer  in   contrast  with  the  tones.     Her   English  was  as 


388  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

lucid  as  her  eyes  when  she  continued  up  to  the  shock  she 
dealt  :  "  Do  not  encourage  a  good  man  to  waste  his  thoughts 
upon  me.  I  have  chosen  my  mate,  and  I  may  never  marry 
him.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  would  marry  me.  He  has 
my  soul.  I  have  no  shame  in  saying  I  love  him.  It  is  to 
love  goodne-s,  greatness  of  heart.  He  is  a  respecter  of 
women — of  all  women  ;  not  only  the  fortunate.  He  is  the 
friend  of  the  weaker  everywhere.  He  has  been  proved  in 
fire.  He  does  not  sentimentalize  over  poor  women,  as  we 
know  who  scorns  people  for  doing  : — and  that  is  better  than 
hardness,  meaning  kindly.  He  is  not  one  of  the  unwise 
advocates.  He  measures  the  forces  against  them.  He  reads 
their  breasts.  He  likes  me.  He  is  with  me  in  my  plans. 
He  has  not  said,  has  not  shown,  he  loves  me.  It  is  too  high 
a  thought  for  me  until  I  hear  it." 

"  Has  your  soul !  "  was  all  that  Victor  could  reply,  while 
the  whole  conception  of  Lakelands  quaked  under  the  crum- 
bling structure. 

Kemonstrance,  argument,  a  word  for  Dudley,  swelled  to 
his  lips  and  sank  in  dumbness.  Her  seeming  intuition — if 
it  was  not  a  perception — of  the  point  where  submission  to 
the  moods  of  his  nature  had  weakened  his  character,  and 
required  her  defence  of  him,  struck  Victor  with  a  serious 
fear  of  his  girl :  and  it  was  the  more  illuminatingly  damna- 
tory for  being  recognized  as  the  sentiment  which  no  father 
should  feel.  He  tried  to  think  she  ought  not  to  be  so  wise 
of  the  things  of  the  world.  An  effort  to  imagine  a  reproof, 
showed  him  her  spirit  through  her  eyes:  in  her  deeds  too: 
she  had  already  done  work  on  the  road  : — Colney  Durance, 
Dartrey  Fenellan,  anything  but  sentimentalists  either  of 
them,  strongly  backing  her,  upholding  her.  Victor  could 
no  longer  so  naturally  name  her  Fredi. 

He  spoke  it  hastily,  under  plea  of  some  humorous  tender- 
ness, when  he  ventured.  When  Dudley,  calling  on  him  in 
the  City  to  discuss  the  candidature  for  the  South  London 
borough,  named  her  Fredi,  that  he  might  regain  a  vantage 
of  familiarity  by  imitating  her  father,  it  struck  Victor  as 
audacious.  It  jarred  in  his  recollection,  though  the  heir  of 
the  earldom  spoke  in  the  tone  of  a  lover,  was  really  at  high 
pitch.  He  appeared  to  be  appreciating  her,  to  have  suffered 
stings  of  pain ;  he  offered  himself;  he  made  but  one  stipu- 
lation.    Victor  regretfully  assured  him,  he  feared  he  could 


AN   EXPIATION.  889 

do  nothing.  The  thought  of  his  entry  into  Lakelands,  witn 
Kesta  Victoria  refusing  the  foundation  stone  of  the  place, 
grew  dim. 

But  he  was  now  canvassing  for  the  Borough,  hearty  at  the 
new  business  as  the  braced  swimmer  on  seas,  which  instantly 
he  became,  with  ah  end  in  view  to  be  gained. 

Late  one  April  night,  expecting  Nataly  to  have  gone  to 
bed,  and  Nesta  to  be  waiting  for  him,  he  reached  home,  and 
found  Nataly  in  her  sitting-room  alone.  "Nesta  was  tired," 
she  said  :  "  we  have  had  a  scene  ;  she  refuses  Mr.  Sowerby ; 
I  am  sick  of  pressing  it ;  he  is  very  much  in  earnest,  pain- 
fully ;  she  blames  him  for  disturbing  me ;  she  will  not  see 
the  right  course : — a  mother  reads  her  daughter  !  If  my  girl 
has  not  guidance ! — she  means  rightly,  she  is  rash." 

Nataly  could  not  utter  all  that  her  insaneness  of  feeling 
made  her  think  with  regard  to  Victor's  daughter — daughter 
also  of  the  woman  whom  her  hard  conscience  accused  of 
inflammability.     "  Here  is  a  note  from  Dr.  Themison,  dear." 

Victor  seized  it,  perused,  and  drew  the  big  breath. 

"From  Themison,"  he  said;  he  coughed. 

"  Don't  think  to  deceive  me,"  said  she.  "  I  have  not  read 
the  contents,  I  know  them." 

"  The  invitation  at  last,  for  to-morrow,  Sunday,  four  p.m. 
Odd,  that  next  day  at  eight  of  the  evening  I  shall  be 
addressing  our  meeting  in  the  Theatre.  Simeon  speaks. 
Beaves  Urmsing  insists  on  coming,  Tory  though  he  is. 
Tho>e  Tories  are  jollier  fellows  than — well,  no  wonder ! 
There  will  be  no  surgical  .  .  .  the  poor  woman  is  very  low. 
A  couple  of  days  at  the  outside.     Of  course,  I  go." 

"  Hand  me  the  note,  dear." 

It  had  to  be  given  up,  out  of  the  pocket. 

"  But,"  said  Victor,  "  the  mention  of  you  is  merely  formal." 

She  needed  sleep  :  she  bowed  her  head. 

Nataly  was  the  tirst  at  the  breakfast-table  in  the  morning, 
a  fair  Sunday  morning.  She  was  going  to  Mrs.  John 
Cormyn's  Church,  and  she  asked  Nesta  to  come  with  her. 

She  returned  five  minutes  before  the  hour  of  lunch,  having 
left  Nesta  with  Mrs.  John.  Louise  de  Seilles  undertook  to 
bring  Nesta  home  at  the  time  she  might  choose.  Fenellan, 
Mr.  Pempton,  Peridon  and  Catkin,  lunched  and  chatted. 
Nataly  chatted.  At  a  quarter  to  three  o'clock  Victors 
callage  was  at  the  door.      He  rose;    he  had  to  keep  an 


390  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

appointment.  Nataly  said  to  him  publicly :  "  I  come  too." 
He  stared  and  nodded.  In  the  carriage,  he  said  :  "  I'm 
driving  to  the  Gardens,  for  a  stroll,  to  have  a  look  at  the 
beasts.  Sort  of  relief.  Poor  crazy  woman ! — However,  it's 
a  comfort  to  her :  so  !  .  .  . " 

"  I  like  to  see  them,"  said  Nataly.  "  I  shall  see  her.  I 
have  to  do  it." 

Up  to  the  gate  of  the  Gardens  Victor  was  arguing  to  dis- 
suade his  dear  soul  from  this  very  foolish,  totally  unnecessary, 
step.  Alighting,  he  put  the  matter  aside,  lor  good  angels  to 
support  his  counsel  at  the  final  moment. 

Bears,  lions,  tigers,  eagles,  monkeys:  they  suggested  no 
more  than  he  would  have  had  from  prints ;  they  sprang 
no  reflection,  except,  that,  the  coming  hour  was  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  them.  They  were  about  him,  and  exercised 
so  far  a  distraction.  He  took  very  kindly  to  an  old  mother 
monkey,  relinquishing  her  society  at  sight  of  Nataly's  heave 
of  the  bosom.  Southward,  across  the  park,  the  dread  house 
rose.  He  began  quoting  Colney  Durance  with  relish  while 
sarcastically  confuting  the  cynic,  who  found  much  pasture 
in  these  Gardens.  Over  Southward,  too,  he  would  be  address- 
ing a  popular  assembly  to-morrow  evening.  Between  now 
and  then  there  was  a  ditch  to  jump.  He  put  on  the  sym- 
pathetic face  of  grief.  "  After  all,  a  caged  wild  beast  hasn't 
so  bad  a  life,"  he  said. — To  be  well  fed  while  tbey  live,  and 
welcome  death  as  a  release  from  the  maladies  they  develop 
in  idleness,  is  the  condition  of  wealthy  people  : — creatures  of 
prey?  horrible  thought!  yet  allied  to  his  Idea,  it  seemed. 
Yes,  but  these  good  caged  beasts  here  set  them  an  example, 
in  not  troubling  relatives  and  friends  when  tbey  come  to  the 
gasp !  Mrs.  Burman's  invitation  loomed  as  monstrous— a 
final  act  of  her  cruelty.  His  skin  pricked  with  dews.  He 
thought  of  Nataly  beside  him,  jumping  the  ditch  with  him, 
as  a  relief — if  she  insisted  on  doing  it.  He  hoped  she  would 
not,  for  the  sake  of  her  composure. 

It  was  a  ditch  void  of  bottom.  But  it  was  a  mere  matter 
of  an  hour,  less.  The  state  of  health  of  the  invalid  could 
bear  only  a  few  minutes.  In  any  case,  we  are  sure  that  the 
hour  will  pass.  Our  own  arrive?  Certainly.  "Capital 
place  for  children ! "  he  exclaimed.  And  here  startlingly 
before  him  in  the  clusters  of  boys  and  girls,  was  the  differ- 
ence between  young  ones  and  their  elders  feeling  quite  as 


AN   EXPIATION 


young:  the  careless  youngsters  have  not  to  go  and  sit  in  the 
room  with  a  virulent  old  woman,  and  express  penitence  and 
what  not,  and  hear  words  of  pardon,  after  their  holiday 
scamper  and  stare  at  the  caged  beasts. 

Attention  to  the  children  precipitated  him  upon  acquaint- 
ances, hitherto  cleverly  shunned.  He  nodded  them  off,  after 
the  brightest  of  greetings. 

Such  anodyne  as  he  could  squeeze  from  the  incarcerated 
wild  creatures  was  exhausted.  He  fell  to  work  at  Nataly's 
*  aristocracy  of  the  contempt  of  luxury ' ;  signifying,  that  we 
the  wealthy  will  not  exist  to  pamper  flesh,  but  we  live  for 
the  promotion  of  brotherhood : — ay,  and  that  our  England 
must  make  some  great  moral  stand,  if  she  is  not  to  fall  to 
the  rear  and  down.  Unuttereil,  it  caught  the  skirts  of  the 
Idea:  it  evaporated  when  spoken.  Still,  this  theme  was 
almost  an  exorcism  of  Mrs.  Burman.  He  consulted  his 
watch.  "  Thirteen  minutes  to  four.  I  must  be  punctual," 
lie  said.     Nataly  stepped  faster. 

Seated  in  the  carriage,  he  told  her  he  had  never  felt  the 
horror  of  that  place  before.  "  Put  me  down  at  the  corner  of 
the  terrace,  dear :  I  won't  drive  to  the  door." 

*'  I  come  with  you,  Victor,"  she  replied. 

After  entreaties  and  reasons  intermixed,  to  melt  her  resolve, 
he  saw  she  was  firm :  and  he  asked  himself,  whether  he 
might  not  be  constitutionally  better  adapted  to  persuade 
than  to  dissuade.  The  question  thumped.  Having  that 
house  of  drugs  in  view,  he  breathed  more  freely  for  the  ' 
prospect  of  feeling  his  Nataly  near  him  beneath  the 
roof. 

"  You  really  insist,  dear  love  ? "  he  appealed  to  her :  and 
her  answer:  "It  must  be,"  left  no  doubt:  though  he  chose 
to  say  :  "  Not  because  of  standing  by  me  ?  "  And  she  said  : 
"  For  my  peace,  Victor."  They  stepped  to  the  pavement. 
The  carriage  was  dismissed. 

Seventeen  houses  of  the  terrace  fronting  the  park  led  to 
the  funereal  one :  and  the  bell  was  tolled  in  the  breast  of 
each  of  the  couple  advancing  with  an  air  of  calmness  to  the 
inevitable  black  door. 

Jarniman  opened  it.  "  His  mistress  was  prepared  to  see 
them." — Not  like  one  near  death. — They  were  met  in  the 
hall  by  the  Rev.  Groseman  Buttermore.  "  You  will  find  a 
"Welcome,"  was  his  reassurance  to  them,  gently  delivered,  on 


392  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

the  stoop  of  a  large  person.  His  whispeied  tones  were  more 
agreeably  deadening  than  his  words. 

Mr.  Butterraore  ushered  them  upstairs.' 

"  Can  she  bear  it  ?  "  Victor  said,  and  heard :  "  Her  wish : 
ten  minutes." 

"  Soon  over,"  he  murmured  to  Nataly,  with  a  compassionate 
exclamation  for  the  invalid. 

They  rounded  the  open  door.  They  were  in  the  drawing- 
room.  It  was  furnished  as  in  the  old  time,  gold  and  white, 
looking  new;  all  the  same  as  of  old,  save  for  a  division  of 
silken  hangings;  and  these  were  pale  blue  :  the  colour  pre- 
ferred by  Victor  for  a  bedroom.  He  glanced  at  the  ceiling, 
to  bathe  in  a  blank  space  out  of  memory.  Here  she  lived, 
here  she  slept,  behind  the  hangings.  There  was  refresh- 
ingly that  little  difference  in  the  arrangement  of  the  room. 
The  corner  Northward  was  occupied  by  the  grand  piano; 
and  Victor  had  an  inquiry  in  him: — tuned?  He  sighed, 
expecting  a  sight  to  come  through  the  hangings.  Sensible 
that  Nataly  trembled,  he  perceived  the  Rev.  Groseman 
Butter  more  half  across  a  heap  of  shawl -swathe  on  the  sofa. 

Mrs.  Burman  was  present ;  seated.  People  may  die  seated ; 
she  had  always  disliked  the  extended  posture  ;  except  for 
the  night's  rest,  she  used  to  say;  imagining  herself  to  be 
not  inviting  the  bolt  of  sudden  death,  in  her  attitude,  when 
seated  by  day  : — and  often  at  night  the  poor  woman  had  to 
sit  up  for  the  qualms  of  her  dyspepsia! — But.  I'm  bound  to 
think  humanely,  be  Christian,  be  kind,  benignant,  he  thought, 
and  he  fetched  the  spirit  required,  to  behold  her  face  emerge 
from  a  pale  blue  silk  veiling;  as  it  were,  the  inanimate 
wasted  led  up  from  the  mould  by  morning. 

Mr.  Buttermore  signalled  to  them  to  draw  near. 

Wasted  though  it  was,  the  face  of  the  wide  orbits  for 
sunken  e\es  was  distinguishable  as  the  one  once  known.  If 
the  world  could  see  it  and  hear,  that  it  called  itself  a  man's 
wife  !     She  looked  burnt  out. 

Two  chairs  had  been  set  to  front  the  sofa.  Execution 
there  !  Victor  thought,  and  he  garrotted  the  unruly  mind  of 
a  man  really  feeling  devoutness  in  the  presence  of  the  shadow 
thrown  by  the  dread  Shade. 

"  Ten  minutes,"  Mr.  Buttermore  said  low,  after  obligingly 
placing  them  on  the  chairs. 

He  went.     They  were  alone  with  Mrs.  Burman. 


ATT   EXPIATION.  393 

No  voice  came.  They  were  unsure  of  being  seen  "by  the 
floating  grey  of  eyes  patient  to  gaze  from  their  vast  distance. 
Big  drops  fell  from  Nataly's.  Victor  heard  the  French 
time-piece  on  the  mantel-shelf,  where  a  familiar  gilt  Cupid 
swung  for  the  seconds  :  his  own  purchase.  The  time  of  day 
on  the  clock  was  wrong ;  the  Cupid  swung. 

Nataly's  mouth  was  taking  hreath  of  anguish  at  moments. 
More  than  a  minute  of  the  terrible  length  of  the  period  of 
torture  must  have  gone  :  two,  if  not  three. 

A  quaver  sounded.  "  You  have  come."  The  voice  was 
articulate,  thinner  than  the  telephonic,  trans-Atlantio  by 
deep-sea  cable. 

Victor  answered :  "  We  have." 

Another  minute  must  have  gone  in  the  silence.  And 
when  we  get  to  five  minutes  we  are  on  the  descent,  rapidly 
counting  our  way  out  of  the  house,  into  the  fresh  air,  where 
we  were  half  an  hour  back,  among  those  happy  beasts  in  the 
pleasant  Gardens  ! 

Mrs.  Burman's  eyelids  shut.     "  I  said  you  would  come." 

Victor  started  to  the  fire-screen.  "  Your  sight  requires 
protection." 

She  dozed.     "  And  Natalia  Dreighton !"  she  next  said. 

They  were  certainly  now  on  the  five  minutes.  Now  for 
the  slide  downward  and  outward!  Nataly  should  never 
have  been  allowed  to  come. 

44  The  white  waistcoat  1 "  struck  his  ears. 

44  Old  customs  with  me,  always !  "  he  responded.  "  The 
first  of  April,  always.  White  is  a  favourite.  Pale  blue,  too. 
But  I  fear — I  hope  you  have  not  distressing  nights?  In  my 
family  we  lay  great  stress  on  the  nights  we  pass.  My 
cousins,  the  Miss  Duvidneys,  go  so  far  as  to  judge  of  the 
condition  of  health  by  the  nightly  record." 

4' Your  daughter  was  in  their  house." 

She  knew  everything  ! 

*' Very  fond  of  my  daughter — the  ladies,"  he  remarked. 

*'  I  wish  her  well." 

44  You  are  very  kind." 

Mrs.  Burman  communed  within  or  slept.  "  Victor,  Natalia, 
we  will  pray,"  she  said. 

Her  trembling  hands  crossed  their  fingers.  Nataly  slipped 
to  her  knees. 

The  two  women  mutely  praying,  pulled  Victor  into  the 


394  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

devotional  hush..  It  acted  on  him  like  the  silent  spell  of 
service  in  a  Church.  He  forgot  his  estimate  of  the  minutes, 
he  formed  a  prayer,  he  refused  to  hear  the  Cupid  swinging, 
he  droned  a  sound  of  sentences  to  deaden  his  ears.  Ideas  of 
eternity  rolled  in  semblance  of  enormous  clouds.  Death 
was  a  black  bird  among  them.  The  piano  rang  to  Nataly  s 
young  voice  and  his.  The  gold  and  white  of  the  chairs 
welcomed  a  youth  suddenly  enrolled  among  the  wealthy  by 
nn  enamoured  old  lady  on  his  arm.  Cupid  tick-ticked. — Poor 
soul !  poor  woman  !  How  little  we  mean  to  do  harm  when 
•we  do  an  injury  !  An  incomprehensible  world  indeed  at  the 
bottom  and  at  the  top.  We  get  on  fairly  at  the  centre.  Yet 
it  is  there  that  we  do  the  mischief  making  such  a  riddle  of 
the  bottom  and  the  top.  What  is  to  be  said  !  Prayer  quiets 
one.  Victor  peered  at  Nataly  fervently  on  her  knees  and 
Mrs.  Burman  bowed  over  her  knotted  fingers.  The  earnest- 
ness of  both  enforced  an  effort  at  a  phrased  prayer  in  him. 
Plunging  through  a  wave  of  the  scent  of  Marechale,  that 
was  a  tremendous  memory  to  haul  him  backward  and  forward, 
he  beheld  his  prayer  dancing  across  the  furniture  ;  a  diminu- 
tive thin  black  figure,  elvish,  irreverent,  appallingly  unlike 
his  proper  emotion ;  and  he  brought  his  hands  just  to  touch, 
and  got  to  the  edge  of  his  chair,  with  spilt  knees.  At  once 
the  figure  vanished.  By  merely  looking  at  Nataly,  he  passed 
into  her  prayer.  A  look  at  Mrs.  Burman  made  it  personal, 
his  own.  He  heard  the  cluck  of  a  horrible  sob  coming  from 
him.  After  a  repetition  of  his  short  form  of  prayer  deeply 
stressed,  he  thanked  himself  with  the  word  "  sincere,"  and 
a  queer  side-thought  on  our  human  susceptibility  to  the 
influence  of  posture.     We  are  such  creatures. 

Nataly  resumed  her  seat.  Mrs.  Burman  had  raised  her 
head.  She  said :  "  We  are  at  peace."  She  presently  said, 
with  effort :  "  It  cannot  last  with  me.  *L  die  in  nature's 
way.  I  would  bear  forgiveness  with  me,  that  I  may  have 
it  above.  I  give  it  here,  to  you,  to  all.  My  soul  is  cleansed, 
I  trust.  Much  was  to  say.  My  strength  will  not.  Unto 
God,  you  both !  " 

The  Eev.  Groseman  Buttermore  was  moving  on  slippered 
step  to  the  back  of  the  sofa.  Nataly  dropped  before  the 
unseeing,  scarce  breathing,  lady  for  an  instant.  Victor  mur- 
mured an  adieu,  grateful  for  being  spared  the  ceremonial 
shake  of  hands.     He  turned  away,  then  turned  back,  praying 


THE    NIGHT    OP    THE    GREAT    UNDELIVERED    SPEECH.       395 

for  power  to  speak,  to  say  that  lie  had  found  his  heart,  was 
grateful,  would  hold  her  in  memory.  He  fell  on  a  knee 
before  her,  and  forgot  he  had  done  so  when  he  had  risen. 
They  were  conducted  by  the  rev.  gentleman  to  the  hall-door : 
he  was  not  speechless.  Jarniman  uttered  something. 
That  black  door  closed  behind  them. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

THE   NIGHT   OF   THE   GREAT    UNDELIVERED   SPEECH. 

To  a  man  issuing  from  a  mortuary  where  a  skull  had  voice, 
London  may  be  restorative  as  air  of  Summer  Alps.  It  is  by 
contrast  blooming  life.  Observe  the  fellowship  of  the  houses 
shoulder  to  shoulder ;  and  that  straight  ascending  smoke  of 
the  preparation  for  dinner;  and  the  good  policeman  yonder, 
blessedly  idle  on  an  orderly  Sabbath  evening;  and  the 
families  of  the  minor  people  trotting  homeward  from  the 
park  to  tea ;  here  and  again  an  amiable  cariiage  of  the  super- 
imposed people  driving  to  pay  visits ;  they  are  so  social, 
friendly,  inviting  to  him ;  they  strip  him  of  the  shroud,  sing 
of  the  sweet  old  world.  He  cannot  but  be  moved  to  the 
extremity  of  charitableness  neighbouring  on  tears. 

A  stupefaction  at  the  shock  of  the  positive  reminder,  echo 
of  the  fact  still  shouting  in  his  breast,  that  he  had  seen  Mrs. 
Burman,  and  that  the  interview  was  over — the  leaf  turned 
and  the  book  shut — held  Victor  in  a  silence  until  his  grate- 
fulness to  London  City  was  borne  down  by  the  more  human 
burst  of  gratitude  to  the  dying  woman,  who  had  spared  him, 
as  much  as  she  could,  a  scene  of  the  convulsive  pathetic,  and 
had  not  called  on  him  for  any  utterance  of  penitence.  That 
worm-like  thread  of  voice  came  up  to  him  still  from  sexton- 
depths:  it  sounded  a  larger  forgiveness  without  the  word. 
He  felt  the  sorrow  of  it  all,  as  he  told  .Nataly ;  at  the  same 
time  bidding  her  smell  "the  marvellous  oxygen  of  the  park." 
He  declared  it  to  be  quite  equal  to  Lakelands. 

She  slightly  pressed  his  arm  for  answer.  Perhaps  she  did 
not  feel  so  deeply  ?  She  was  free  of  the  horrid  associations 
with  the  scent  of  Marechale.  At  any  rate,  she  had  com- 
ported herself  admirably  I 


396  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

Victor  fancied  he  must  have  shuddered  when  he  passed  by 
Jarniman  at  the  door,  who  was  almost  now  seeing  his 
mistress's  ghost — would  have  the  privilege  to-morrow.  He 
called  a  cab  and  drove  to  Mrs.  John  Cormyn's,  at  Nataly's 
request,  for  Nesta  and  mademoiselle ;  enjoying  the  London- 
ized  odour  of  the  cab.  Nataly  did  not  respond  to  his  warm 
and  continued  eulogies  of  Mrs.  Burman ;  she  rather  dis- 
appointed him.  tHe  talked  of  the  gold  and  white  furniture, 
he  just  alluded  to  the  Cupid  :  reserving  his  mental  comment, 
that  the  time-piece  was  all  astray,  the  Cupid  regular  on  the 
swing:— strange,  touching,  terrible,  if  really  the  silly  gilt 
figure  symbolized!  .  .  .  And  we  are  a  silly  figure  to  be 
sitting  in  a  cab  imagining  such  things  ! — When  Nesta  and 
mademoiselle  were  opposite,  he  had  the  pleasure  to  see 
Nataly  take  Nesta's  hand  and  hold  it  until  they  reached 
home.  Those  two  talking  together  in  the  brief  words  of 
their  deep  feeling,  had  tones  that  were  singularly  alike :  the 
mezzo-soprano  filial  to  the  divine  maternal  contralto.  Those 
two  dear  ones  mounted  to  Nataly's  room. 

The  two  dear  ones  showed  themselves  heart  in  heart 
together  once  more ;  each  looked  the  happier  for  it.  Dartrey 
was  among  their  dinner-guests,  and  Nataly  took  him  to  her 
little  blue-room  before  she  went  to  bed.  He  did  not  speak 
of  their  conversation  to  Victor,  but  counselled  him  to  keep 
her  from  excitement.  '*  My  dear  fellow,  if  you  had  seen  her 
with  Mrs.  Burman  ! "  Victor  said,  and  loudly  praised  her 
coolness.     She  was  never  below  a  situation,  he  affirmed. 

He  followed  his  own  counsel  to  humour  his  Nataly.  She 
began  panting  at  a  word  about  Mr.  Barmby's  ready  services. 
When,  however,  she  related  the  state  of  affairs  between 
Dai  trey  and  Nesta,  by  the  avowal  of  each  of  them  to  her,  he 
said,  embracing  her :  "  Your  wisdom  shall  guide  us,  my 
love,"  and  almost  extinguished  a  vexation  by  concealing  it. 

She  sighed  :  "  If  one  could  think,  that  a  girl  with  Nesta's 
revolutionary  ideas  of  the  duties  of  women,  and  their  powers, 
would  be  safe — or  at  all  rightly  guided  by  a  man  who  is 
both  one  of  the  noblest  and  the  wildest   in  the  ideas  he 


entertains 


f  »» 


Victor  sighed  too.  He  saw  the  earldom,  which  was  to 
dazzle  the  gossips,  crack  on  the  sky  in  a  futile  rocket- 
bouquet. 

She  was  distressed ;  she  moaned  :  "  My  girl !  my  girl !     I 


THE    NIGHT    OF    THE    GREAT    UNDELIVERED    SPEECH.       397 

should  wish  to  leave  her  with  one  who  is  more  fixed — the 
old-fashioned  husband.  New  ideas  must  come  in  politics, 
but  in  Society! — and  for  women!  And  the  young  having 
heads,  are  the  most  endangered.  Nesta  vows  her  life  to  it ! 
Dartrey  supports  her  !  " 

"See  Colney,"  said  Victor.  "Odd,  Colney  does  you  goodj 
some  queer  way  he  has.  Though  you  don't  care  for  his 
Kival  Tongues, — and  the  last  number  was  funny,  with 
^emhians  on  the  Pacific,  impressively  addressing  a  farewell 
to  his  cricket-bat,  before  he  whirls  it  away  to  Neptune — and 
the  blue  hand  of  his  nation's  protecting  God  observed  to 
seize  it ! — Dead  failure  with  the  public,  of  course  !  How- 
ever, he  seems  to  seem  wise  with  you.  The  poor  old  fellow 
gets  his  trouncing  from  the  critics  monthly.  See  Colney 
to-morrow,  my  love.  Now  go  to  sleep.  We  have  got  over 
the  worst.  I  speak  at  my  Meeting  to-morrow  and  am  a 
champagne-bottle  of  notes  and  points  for  them." 

His  lost  Idea  drew  close  to  him  in  sleep  :  or  he  thought  so, 
when  awaking  to  the  conception  of  a  people  solidified,  rich 
and  poor,  by  the  common  pride  of  simple  manhood.  But  it 
was  not  coloured,  not  a  luminous  globe :  and  the  people  were 
in  drab,  not  a  shining  army  on  the  march  to  meet  the 
Future.  It  looked  like  a  paragraph  in  a  newspaper,  upon 
which  a  Leading  Article  sits,  dutifully  arousing  the  fat  worm 
of  sarcastic  humour  under  the  ribs  of  cradled  citizens,  with 
an  exposure  of  its  excellent  folly.  He  would  not  have  it 
laughed  at;  still  he  could  not  admit  it  as  more  than  a  skirt 
of  the  robe  of  his  Idea.  For  let  none  think  him  a  mere  City 
merchant,  millionnaire,  boonfellow,  or  music-loving  man  of 
the  world.  He  had  ideas  to  shoot  across  future  Ages ; — pro- 
vide against  the  shrinkage  of  our  Coal-beds;  against,  and 
for,  if  you  like,  the  thickening,  jumbling,  threatening  excess 
of  population  in  these  Islands,  in  Europe,  America,  all  over 
our  habitable  sphere.  Now  that  Mrs.  Burman,  on  her  way 
to  bliss,  was  no  longer  the  dungeon-cell  for  the  man  he 
would  show  himself  to  be,  this  name  for  successes,  corporate 
nucleus  of  the  enjoyments,  this  Victor  Montgomery  Kadnor, 
intended  impressing  himself  upon  the  world  as  a  factory  of 
ideas.  Colney's  insolent  charge,  that  the  English  have  no 
imagination — a  doomed  race,  if  it  be  true ! — would  be  con- 
futed. For  our  English  require  but  the  lighted  leadership 
to  come   into  cohesion,  and   step   ranked,   and   chant  har- 


308  ONE    OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

moniously  the  song  of  their  benevolent  aim.  And  that 
astral  head  giving,  as  a  commencement,  example  of  the  right 
use  of  riches,  the  cation  is  one,  part  of  the  riddle  of  the 
future  solved, 

Surely  he  had  here  the  Idea?  He  had  it  so  warmly,  that 
his  bath-water  heated.  Only  the  vision  was  wanted.  On 
London  Bridge  he  had  seen  it — a  great  thing  done  to  the 
Hash  of  brilliant  results.     That  was  after  a  fall. 

There  had  been  a  fall  also  of  the  scheme  of  Lakelands. 

Come  to  us  with  no  superstitious  whispers  of  indications 
and  significations  in  the  fall ! — But  there  had  certainly  been 
a  moral  fall,  fully  to  the  level  of  the  physical,  in  the  main- 
taining of  that  scheme  of  Lakelands,  now  ruined  by  his 
incomprehensible  Nesta — who  had  saved  him  from  falling 
further.  His  bath-water  chilled.  He  jumped  out  and  rubbed 
furiously  with  his  towels  and  flesh-brushes,  chasing  the  Idea 
for  simple  warmth,  to  have  Something  inside  hitn,  to  feel  just 
that  sustainment ;  with  the  cry :  But  no  one  can  say  I  do 
not  love  my  Nataly !  And  he  tested  it  to  prove  it  by  his 
readiness  to  die  for  her:  which  is  heroically  easier  than  the 
devotedly  living,  and  has  a  weight  of  evidence  in  our  internal 
Courts  for  surpassing  the  latter  tedious  performance.  His 
Nesta  had  knocked  Lakelands  to  pieces.  Except  for  the 
making  of  money,  the  whole  year  of  an  erected  Lakelands, 
notwithstanding  uninterrupted  successes,  was  a  blank.  Or 
rather  we  have  to  wish  it  were  a  blank.  The  scheme  departs : 
payment  for  the  enlisted  servants  of  it  is  in  prospect.  A 
black  agent,  not  willingly  enlisted,  yet  pointing  to  proofs  of 
service,  refuses  payment  in  ordinary  coin ;  and  we  tell  him 
we  owe  him  nothing,  that  he  is  not  a  man  of  the  world,  has 
no  understanding  of  Nature:  and  still  the  fellow  thumps 
and  alarums  at  a  midnight  door  we  are  astonished  to  find 
we  have  in  our  daylight  house.  How  is  it  ?  Would  other 
men  be  so  sensitive  to  him?  Victor  was  appeased  by  the 
assurance  of  his  possession  of  an  exceptionally  scrupulous 
conscience  ;  and  he  settled  the  debate  by  thinking :  After  all, 
for  a  man  like  me,  battling  incessantly,  a  kind  of  Vesuvius, 
I  must  have — can't  be  starved,  must  be  fed — though,  pah ! 
But  I'm  not  to  be  questioned  like  other  men. — But  how  about 
an  aristocracy  of  the  contempt  of  distinctions  ? — But  there  is 
no  escaping  distinctions  !  my  aristocracy  despises  indulgence. 
— And  indulges? — Say,  an  exceptional  nature! — Supposing 


THE   NIGHT    OF   THE    GREAT   UNDELIVERED    SPEECH.      399 

a  certain  beloved  woman  to  pronounce  on  the  case? — She 
cannot :  no  woman  can  be  a  just  judge  of  it. — He  cried  :  My 
love  of  her  is  testified  by  my  having  Barmby  handy  to  right 
her  to-day,  to-morrow,  the  very  instant  the  clock  strikes  the 
hour  of  my  release ! 

Mention  of  the  clock  swung  that  silly  gilt  figure.  Victor 
entered  into  it,  condemned  to  swing,  and  be  a  thrall.  His 
intensity  of  sensation  launched  him  on  an  eternity  of  the 
swinging  in  ridiculous  nakedness  to  the  measure  of  Time 
gone  crazy.  He  had  to  correct  a  reproof  of  Mrs.  Burman,  as 
the  cause  of  the  nonsense.  He  ran  down  to  breakfast,  hoping 
he  might  hear  of  that  clock  stopped,  and  that  sickening 
motion  with  it.  \ 

Another  letter  from  the  Sanfredini  in  Milan,  warmly  in- 
viting to  her  villa  over  Como,  acted  on  him  at  breakfast  like 
the  waving  of  a  banner.  "  We  go,"  Victor  said  to  Nataly, 
and  flattered-up  a  smile  about  her  lips — too  much  a  resurrec- 
tion smile.  There  was  talk  of  the  Meeting  at  the  theatre : 
Simeon  Fenellan  had  spoken  there  in  the  cause  of  the 
deceased  Member,  was  known,  and  was  likely  to  have  a  good 
reception.     Fun  and  enthusiasm  miu,ht  be  expected. 

"And  my  darling  will  hear  her  husband  speak  to-night," 
he  whispered  as  he  was  departing ;  and  did  a  mischief,  he 
hud  to  ftar,  for  a  shadowy  knot  crossed  Nataly's  forehead, 
she  seemed  paler.  He  sent  back  Nesta  and  mademoiselle,  in 
consequence,  at  the  end  of  the  Green  Park. 

Their  dinner-hour  was  early  ;  Simeon  Fenellan,  Colney 
Durance,  and  Mr.  Peridon  — pleasing  to  Nataly  for  his  faithful 
siege  of  the  French  fortress  —were  the  only  guests.  When 
they  rose,  Nataly  drew  Victor  aside.  He  came  dismayed  to 
Nesta.  She  ran  to  her  mother.  "Not  hear  papa  speak?  Oh, 
mother,  mother  !  Then  I  stay  with  her.  But  can't  she  come  t 
He  is  going  to  unfold  ideas  to  us.     There  !  " 

"My  naughty  girl  is  not  to  poke  her  fun  at  orators," 
Nataly  said.  "  No,  dearest ;  it  would  agitate  me  to  go.  I'm 
better  here.     I  shall  be  at  peace  when  the  night  is  over." 

**  But  you  will  be  all  alone  here,  dear  mother." 

Nataly's  eyes  wandered  to  fall  on  Colney.  He  proposed 
to  give  her  his  company.  She  declined  it.  Nesta  ventured 
another  entreaty,  either  that  she  might  be  allowed  to  stay  or 
have  her  mother  with  her  at  the  Meeting. 

"  My  love,"  Nataly  said,  "  the  thought  of  the  Meeting " 


400  ONE    OF    OUR   CONQUERORS. 

She  clasped  at  her  breast;  and  she  murmured  :  "I  shall  be 
comforted  by  your  being  with  him.  There  is  no  danger 
there.  But  I  shall  be  happy,  I  shall  be  at  peace  when  this 
night  is  over." 

Colney  persuaded  her  to  have  him  for  companion.  Mr. 
Peridon,  who  was  to  have  driven  with  Nesta  and  made- 
moiselle, won  admiration  bjT  proposing  to  stay  for  an  hour 
and  play  some  of  Mrs.  Radnor's  favourite  pieces.  Nesta  and 
Victor  overbore  Nataly's  objections  to  the  lover's  generosity. 
So  Mr.  Peridon  was  left.  Nesta  came  hurrying  back  from 
the  step  of  the  carriage  to  kiss  her  mother  again,  ssaying : 
"  Just  one  last  kiss,  my  own  !  And  she's  not  to  look  troubled. 
I  shall  remember  everything  to  tell  my  own  mother.  It  will 
soon  be  over." 

Her  mother  nodded ;  but  the  embrace  was  passionate. 

Nesta  called  her  father  into  the  passage,  bidding  him  pro- 
hibit any  delivery  to  her  mother  of  news  at  the  door.  "  She 
is  easily  startled  now  by  trifles — you  have  noticed?  " 

Victor  summoned  his  recollections  and  assured  her  he  had 
noticed,  as  he  believed  he  had.  "  The  dear  heart  of  her  is 
fretting  for  the  night  to  be  over !  And  think  ! — seven  days, 
and  she  is  in  Lakelands.  A  fortnight,  and  we  have  our  first 
Concert.  Durandarte  !  Oh,  the  dear  heart'll  be  at  peace 
when  I  tell  her  of  a  triumphant  Meeting.  Not  a  doubt  of 
that,  even  though  Colney  turns  the  shadow  of  his  back 
on  us." 

"  One  critic  the  less  for  you  !  "  said  Nesta.  Skepsey  was 
to  meet  her  carriage  at  the  theatre. 

Ten  minutes  later,  Victor  and  Simeon  Fenellan  were  pro- 
ceeding thitherward  on  foot. 

•'  I  have  my  speech,"  said  Victor.  "  You  prepare  the  way 
for  me,  following  our  influential  friend  Dubbleson  ;  Colewort 
winds  up;  anyone  else  they  shout  for.  We  shall  have  a 
great  evening.  I  suspect  I  shall  find  Themison  or  Jarniman 
when  I  get  home.  You  don't  believe  in  intimations?  I've 
had  crapy  processions  all  day  before  my  eyes.  No  wonder, 
after  yesterday ! " 

**  Dubbleson  mustn't  drawl  it  out  too  long,"  said  Fenellan. 

"  We'll  drop  a  hint.     Where's  Dartrey  ?  " 

"  He'll  come.  He's  in  one  of  his  black  moods :  not  temper. 
He's  got  a  notion  he  killed  his  wife  by  dragging  her  to 
Africa  with  him.     She  was  not  only  ready  to  go,  she  was 


THE    NIGHT    OF    THE    GREAT    UNDELIVERED    SPEECH.       401 

glad  to  go.     She  had  a  bit  of  the   heroine  in  her  and  a 
certainty  of  tripping  to  the  deuce  if  she  was  left  to  herself." 

"Tell  Nataly  that,"  said  Victor.  "And  tell  her  about 
Dartrey.  Harp  on  it.  Once  she  was  all  for  him  and  our 
/girl.  But  it's  a  woman — though  the  dearest !  I  defy  any- 
one t©  hit  on  the  cause  of  their  changes.  We  must  make 
the  best  of  things,  if  we're  for  swimming.  The  task  for  me 
to-night  will  be,  to  keep  from  rolling  out  all  I've  got  in  my 
oead.  And  I'm  not  revolutionary,  I'm  for  stability,  Only 
I  do  see,  that  the  firm  stepping-place  asks  for  a  long  stride 
to  be  taken.  One  can't  get  the  English  to  take  a  stride — 
unless  it's  for  a  foot  behind  them  : — bother  old  Colney  !  Too 
timid,  or  too  scrupulous,  down  we  go  into  the  mire.  There  ! 
— But  I  want  t>  >ay  it !  I  want  to  save  the  existing  order. 
I  want  Christianity,  instead  of  the  Manimonism  we're 
threatened  with.  Great  fortunes  now  are  becoming  the 
giants  of  old  to  stalk  the  land  :  or  mediaeval  Barons.  Dis- 
persion of  wealth,  is  the  secret.  Nataly's  of  that  mind  with 
me.  A  decent  poverty  !  She's  rather  wearying,  wants  a 
change.  I've  a  steam-yacht  in  my  eye,  for  next  month  on 
the  Mediterranean.  All  our  set.  She  likes  quiet.  1  believe 
in  my  political  recipe  for  it." 

He  thumped  on  a  method  he  had  for  preserving  aristocracy 
— true  aristocracy,  amid  a  positively  democratic  flood  of  riches. 

"  It  appears  to  me,  you're  on  the  road  of  Priscilla  Graves 
and  Fempton,"  observed  Simeon.  "Strike  off  Priscilla's 
viands  and  friend  Pempton's  couple  of  glasses,  and  there's 
your  aristocracy  established ;  but  with  rather  a  dispersed 
recognition  of  itself." 

"  Upon  my  word,  you  talk  like  old  Colney,  except  for  a 
twang  of  your  own,"  said  Victor.  "  Colney  sours  at  every 
fresh  number  of  that  Serial.  The  last,  with  Delphica  detect- 
ing the  plot  of  Falarique,  is  really  not  so  bad.  The  four 
disguised  members  of  ihe  Comedie  Francaise  on  board  the 
vessel  from  San  Francisco,  to  declaim  and  prove  the  superior 
merits  of  the  Gallic  tongue,  jumped  me  to  bravo  the  clever- 
ness. And  Bobinikine  turning  to  the  complexion  of  the 
remainder  of  cupboard  dumpling  discovered  in  an  emigi  ant's 
house-to-let!  And  Semhians — I  forget  what:  and  Mytha- 
rete's  forefinger  over  the  bridge  of  his  nose,  like  a  pensive 
vulture  on  the  skull  of  a  desert  camel!  But,  I  complain, 
there's  nothing  to  make  the  English  love  the  author ;  and 

3p 


402  ONE    OF   OUB   CONQUERORS. 

it's  wasted,  lie's  basted,  and  the  book '11  have  no  sale.  I 
hate  satire." 

"  Rough  soap  for  a  thin  skin,  Victor.  Does  it  hurt  our 
people  much?" 

"  Not  a  bit ;  doesn't  touch  them.  But  I  want  my  friends 
to  succeed  ! " 

Their  coming  upon  Westminster  Bridge  changed  the  theme. 
Victor  wished  the  Houses  of  Parliament  to  catch  the  beams 
of  sunset.  He  deferred  to  the  suggestion,  that  the  Hospital's 
doing  jso  seemed  appropriate. 

"  I'm  always  pleased  to  find  a  decent  reason  for  what  «V 
he  said.  Then  he  queried  :  **  But  what  is,  if  we  look  at  it, 
and  while  we  look,  Simeon  ?  She  may  be  going — or  she's 
gone  already,  poor  woman !  I  shall  have  that  scene  of 
yesterday  everlastingly  before  my  eyes,  like  a  di op-curtain. 
Only,  you  know,  Simeon,  they  don't  feel  the  end,  as  we  in 
health  imagine.  Colney  would  say,  we  have  the  spasms  and 
they  the  peace.  I've  a  mind  to  send  up  to  Regent's  Park 
with  inquiries.  It  would  look  respectful.  God  forgive  me! 
— the  poor  woman  perverts  me  at  every  turn.  Though  I 
will  say,  a  certain  horror  of  death  1  had — she  whisked  me 
out  of  it  yesterday.  I  don't  feel  it  any  longer.  What  are 
you  jerking  at?  " 

"  Only  to  remark,  that  if  the  thing's  done  for  us,  we 
haven't,  it  so  much  on  our  sensations." 

"  More,  if  we're  sympathetic.  But  that  compels  us  to  be 
philosophic — or  who  could  live !     Poor  woman  ! 

"  Waft  her  gently,  Victor !  " 

"  Tush !  Now  for  the  South  side  of  the  Bridges ;  and  I 
tell  you,  Simeon,  what  I  can't  mention  to-night:  I  mean  to 
enliven  these  poor  dear  people  on  their  forsaken  South  of 
the  City.  I've  my  scheme.  Elected  or  not,  1  shall  hardly 
be  accused  of  bribery  when  I  put  down  my  first  instalment." 

Fenellan  went  to  woik  with  that  remark  in  his  brain  for 
the  speech  he  was  to  deliver.  He  could  not  but  reflect  on 
the  genial  man's  willingness  and  capacity  to  do  deeds  of 
benevolence,  constantly  thwarted  by  the  position  into  which 
he  had  plunged  himself. 

'J  hey  were  received  at  the  verge  of  the  crowd  outside  the 
theatre-doors  by  Skepsey,  who  wriggled,  tore  and  clove  a 
way  for  them,  where  all  were  obedient,  but  the  numbers 
lumped  and  clogged.     When  finally  they  reached  the  stage, 


THE    NIGHT    OF    THE    GREAT    UNDELIVERED    SPEECH.       403 

they  spied  at  Nesta's  box,  during  the  thunder  of  the  rounds 
of  applause,  after  shaking  hands  with  Mr.  Dubbleson,  Sir 
Abraham  Quatley,  Dudley  Sowerby,  and  others;  and  with 
Beaves  Urmsing — a  politician  "  never  of  the  opposite  party 
to  a  deuce  of  a  funny  fellow ! — go  anywhere  to  hear  him," 
he  vowed. 

"Miss  Eadnor  and  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles  arrived  quite 
safely,"  said  Dudley,  feasting  on  the  box  which  contained 
them  and  no  Dartrey  Fenellan  in  it. 

Nesta  was  wondering  at  Dartrey's  absence.  Not  before 
Mr.  Dubbleson,  the  chairman,  the  'gentleman  of  local  influ- 
ence,' had  animated  the  drowsed  wits  and  respiratory  organs 
of  a  packed  audience  by  yielding  place  to  Simeon,  did 
Dartrey  appear.  Simeon's  name  was  shouted,  in  proof  of 
the  happy  explosion  of  his  first  anecdote,  as  Dartrey  took 
seat  behind  Nesta.  "  Half  an  hour  with  the  dear  mother," 
he  said. 

Nesta's  eyes  thanked  him.  She  pressed  the  hand  of  a 
demure  young  woman  sitting  close  behind  Louise  de  Seilles. 
"  You  know  Matilda  Pridden." 

Dartiey  held  his  hand  out.     "  Has  she  forgiven  me  ?  " 

Matilda  bowed  gravely,  enfolding  her  affirmative  in  an 
outline  of  the  no  need  for  it,  with  perfect  good  breeding. 
Dartrey  was  moved  to  think  Skepseys  choice  of  a  woman  to 
worship  did  him  honour.  He  glanced  at  Louise.  Her  manner 
toward  Matilda  Pridden  showed  her  sisterly  with  Nesta.  He 
said  :  "  I  left  Mr.  Peridon  playing. — A  little  anxiety  to  hear 
that  the  great  speech  of  the  evening  is  done ;  it's  nothing 
else.     I'll  run  to  her  as  soon  as  it's  over." 

"  Oh,  good  of  you  !  And  kind  of  Mr.  Peridon  !  "  She 
turned  to  Louise,  who  smiled  at  the  simple  art  of  the  ex- 
clamation, assenting. 

Victor  below,  on  the  stage  platform,  indicated  the  waving 
of  a  hand  to  them  and  his  delight  at  Simeon's  ringing  points: 
which  were,  to  Dartrey's  mind,  vacuously  clever  and  crafty. 
Dartrey  despised  effects  of  oratory,  save  when  soldiers  had 
to  be  hurled  on  a  mark — or  citizens  nerved  to  stand  for  their 
country.  Nesta  dived  into  her  father's  brilliancy  of  appre- 
ciation, a  trifle  pained  by  Dartrey's  aristocratic  air  when  he 
surveyed  the  herd  of  heads  agape  and  another  cheer  rang 
ro.  ud.  He  smiled  with  her,  to  be  with  her,  at  a  hit  here 
and  there;  he  would  not  pretend  an  approval  of  this  mannir 


404  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

of  winning  electors  to  consider  the  country's  interests  and 
their  own.  One  fellow  in  the  crowded  pit,  affecting  a 
familiarity  with  Simeon,  that  permitted  the  taking  of  liber- 
ties with  the  orator's  Christian  name,  mildly  amused  him. 
He  had  no  objection  to  hear  "  Simmy"  shouted,  as  Louise  de 
Seilles  observed.  She  was  of  his  mind,  in  regard  to  the 
rough  machinery  of  Freedom. 

Skepsey  entered  the  box. 

"  We  shall  soon  be  serious,  Miss  Nesta,"  he  said,  after  a 
look  at,  Matilda  Pridden. 

There  was  prolonged  roaring — on  the  cheerful  side. 

"  And  another  word  about  security  that  your  candidate 
will  keep  his  promises,"  continued  Simeon :  "  You  have  his 
word,  my  friends ! "  And  he  told  the  story  of  the  old 
Governor  of  Goa,  who  wanted  money  and  summoned  the 
usurers,  and  they  wanted  security ;  whereupon  he  laid  his 
Hidalgo  hand  on  a  cataract  of  Kronos-beard  across  his  breast, 
and  pulled  forth  three  white  hairs,  and  presented  them  : 
"  And  as  honourably  to  the  usurious  Jews  as  to  the  noble 
gentleman  himself,  that  security  was  accepted!" 

Emerging  from  hearty  clamours,  the  illustrative  orator 
fell  upon  the  question  of  political  specifics  : — Mr.  Victor 
Radnor  trusted  to  English  good  sense  too  profoundly  to  be 
offering  them  positive  cures,  as  they  would  hear  the  enemy 
say  he  did.  Yet  a  bit  of  a  cuie  may  be  offered,  if  we're  not 
for  pushing  it  too  far,  in  pursuit  of  the  science  of  specifics, 
in  the  style  of  the  foreign  physician,  probably  Spanish,  who 
had  no  practice,  and  wished  for  leisure  to  let  him  prosecute 
his  anatomical  and  other  investigations  to  discover  his  grand 
medical  nostrum.  So  to  get  him  fees  meanwhile  he  adver- 
tised a  cure  for  dyspepsia — the  resource  of  starving  doctors. 
And  sure  enough  his  patient  came,  showing  the  grand  fat 
fellow  we  may  be  when  we  carry  more  of  the  deciduously 
mortal  than  of  the  scraggy  vital  upon  our  persons.  Anyone 
at  a  glance  would  have  prescribed  water-cresses  to  him : 
water-cresses  exclusively  to  eat  for  a  fortnight.  And  that 
the  good  physician  did.  Away  went  his  patient,  returning 
at  the  end  of  the  fortnight,  lean,  and  with  the  appetite  of  a 
Tuledo  blade  for  succulent  slices.  He  vowed  he  was  the 
man.  Our  estimable  doctor  eyed  him,  tapped  at  him,  pinched 
his  tender  parts ;  and  making  him  swear  he  was  really  the 
man,  and   had  eaten  nothing  whatever   but  unadulterated 


THE   NIGHT   OF   THE    GREAT   UNDELIVERED    SPEECH.       405 

water-cresses  in  the  interval,  seized  on  him  in  an  ecstasy  by 
the  collnr  of  his  coat,  pushed  him  into  the  surgery,  knocked 
him  over,  killed  him,  cut  him  up,  and  enjoyed  the  felicity  of 
exposing  to  view  the  very  healthiest  patient  ever  seen  under 
dissecting  hand,  by  favour  of  the  fortunate  discovery  of  the 
specific  for  him.  All  to  further  science ! — to  which,  in  spite 
of  the  petitions  of  all  the  scientific  bodies  of  the  civilized 
world,  he  fell  a  martyr  on  the  scaffold,  poor  gentleman !  But 
we  know  politics  to  be  no  such  empirical  science. 

Simeon  ingeniously  interwove  his  analogy.  He  brought 
it  home  to  Beaves  Urmsing,  whose  laugh  drove  any  tone  of 
apology  out  of  it.  Yet  the  orator  was  asked  :  *'  Do  you  take 
politics  for  a  joke,  Simmy?" 

He  countered  his  questioner  :  "  Just  to  liberate  you  from 
your  moribund  state,  my  friend."  And  he  told  the  story  of 
the  wrecked  sailor,  found  lying  on  the  sands,  flung  up  from 
the  foundered  ship  of  a  Salvation  captain  ;  and  how,  that 
nothing  could  waken  him,  and  there  he  lay  fit  for  interment; 
until  presently  a  something  of  a  voice  grew  down  into  his 
ears  ;  and  it  was  his  old  chum  Polly,  whom  he  had  tied  to  a 
board  to  give  her  a  last  chance  in  the  surges;  and  Polly 
shaking  the  wet  from  her  feathers,  and  shouting :  "  Polly  tho 
dram  dry  !  " — which  struck  on  the  nob  of  Jack's  memory,  to 
revive  all  the  liquorly  tricks  of  the  cabin  under  Salvationism, 
and  he  began  heaving,  and  at  last  he  shook  in  a  lazy  way, 
and  then  from  sputter  to  sputter  got  his  laugh  loose;  and  he 
sat  up,  and  cried  ;  "  That  did  it !  Now  to  business  !  "  for  he 
was  hungry.  "  And  when  I  catch  the  ring  of  this  world's 
laugh  from  you,  my  friend  !  .  .  ."  Simeon's  application  of 
the  story  was  drowned. 

After  the  outburst,  they  heard  his  friend  again  interrupt- 
ingly  :  "  You  keep  that  tongue  of  yours  from  wagging,  as  it 
did  when  you  got  round  the  old  widow  woman  for  her  money, 
Simmy  !  " 

Victor  leaned  forward.  Simeon  towered.  He  bellowed  : 
•'  And  you  keep  that  tongue  of  yours  from  committing  incest 
on  a  lie  ! " 

It  was  like  a  lightning-flash  in  the  theatre.  The  man 
went  under.  Simeon  flowed.  Conscience  reproached  him 
with  the  little  he  had  done  for  Victor,  and  he  had  now  his 
congenial  opportunity. 

Up  in  the  box,  the  powers  of  the  orator  were  not  so  cor 


406  ONE    OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 

dially  esteemed.  To  Matilda  Pridden,  his  tales  were  barely 
decently  the  flesh  and  the  devil  smothering  a  holy  occasion 
to  penetrate  and  exhort.  Dartrey  sat  rigid,  as  with  the 
checked  impatience  for  a  leap.  Nesta  looked  at  Louise  when 
some  one  was  perceived  on  the  stage  bending  to  her  father. 
It  was  Mr.  Peiidon ;  he  never  once  raised  his  face.  Appa- 
rently he  was  not  intelligible  or  audible:  but  the  next 
moment  Victor  sprang  erect.  Dartrey  quitted  the  box.  Nesta 
beheld  her  father  uttering  hurried  words  to  right  and  lett. 
He  passed  from  sight,  Mr.  Peridon  with  him ;  and  Dartrey 
did  not  return. 

Nesta  felt  her  father's  absence  as  light  gone  :  his  eyes 
rayed  light.  Besides  she  had  the  anticipation  of  a  speech 
from  him,  that  would  win  Matilda  Pridden.  She  fancied 
Simeon  Fenellan  to  be  rather  under  the  spell  of  the  hilarity 
he  roused.  A  gentleman  behind  him  spoke  in  his  ear ;  and 
Simeon,  instead  of  ceasing,  resumed  his  flow.  Matilda 
Pridden's  gaze  on  him  and  the  people  was  painful  to  behold : 
Nesta  saw  her  mind.  She  set  herself  to  study  a  popular 
assembly.  It  could  be  serious  to  the  call  of  better  leader- 
ship, she  believed.  Her  father  had  been  telling  her  of  late 
of  a  faith  he  had  in  the  English,  that  they  (or  so  her  intelli- 
gence translated  his  remarks)  had  power  to  rise  to  spiritual 
ascendancy,  and  be  once  more  the  Islanders  heading  the 
world  of  a  new  epoch  abjuring  materialism  : — some  such 
idea ;  very  quickening  to  her,  as  it  would  be  to  this  earnest 
young  woman  worshipped  by  Skepsey.  Her  father's  absence 
and  the  continued  shouts  of  laughter,  the  insatiable  thirst  for 
fun,  darkened  her  in  her  desire  to  have  the  soul  of  the  good 
working  sister  refreshed.  They  had  talked  together;  not 
much  :  enough  for  each  to  see  at  eithers  breast  the  wells 
from  the  founts  of  life. 

The  box-door  opened,  Dartrey  came  in.  He  took  her 
hand.  She  stood-up  to  his  look.  He  said  to  Matilda 
Pridden  :  "  Come  with  us;  she  will  need  you." 

"Speak  it,"  said  Nesta. 

He  said  to  the  other:  " She  has  coursge." 

"  I  could  trust  to  her,"  Matilda  Pridden  replied. 

Nesta  read  his  eyes.     "  Mother  ?  " 

His  answer  was  in  the  pressure. 

"  111  ?  " 

"  No  longer." 


THE   LAST.  407 

"Oh!  Dartrey." 

Matilda  Pridden  caught  her  fast. 

u  I  can  walk,  dear,"*  Nesta  said. 

Dartrey  mentioned  her  father. 

She  understood  :  "lam  thinking  of  him." 

The  words  of  her  mother :  '  At  peace  when  the  night  is 
over,'  rang.  Along  the  gassy  passages  of  the  back  of  the 
theatre,  the  sound  coming  from  an  applausive  audience  was 
as  much  a  thunder  as  rage  would  have  been.  It  was  as  void 
of  human  meaning  as  a  sea. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

THE   LAST. 

In  the  still  dark  hour  of  that  April  morning,  the  Rev. 
Septimus  Barm  by  was  roused  by  Mr.  Peridon,  with  a 
scribbled  message  from  Victor,  which  he  deciphered  by 
candlelight  held  close  to  the  sheet  of  paper,  between  short 
inquiries  and  communications,  losing  more  and  more  the 
sense  of  it  as  his  intelligence  became  aware  of  what  dread 
blow  had  befallen  the  stricken  man.  He  was  bidden  come 
to  fulfil  his  promise  instantly.  He  remembered  the  beating 
of  the  promise.  Mr.  Peridon's  hurried  explanatory  narrative 
made  the  request  terrific,  out  of  tragically  lamentable.  A 
semblance  of  obedience  had  to  be  put  on,  and  the  act  of 
dressing  aided  it.  Mr.  Barmby  prayed  at  heart  for  guidance 
further. 

The  two  gentlemen  drove  Westward,  speaking  little; 
they  had  the  dry  sob  in  the  throat. 

"Miss  Radnor?"  Mr.  Barmby  asked. 

"  She  is  shattered ;  she  holds  up ;  she  would  not  break 
down." 

"  I  can  conceive  her  to  possess  high  courage." 

"  She  has  her  friend  Mademoiselle  de  Seilles." 

Mr.  Barmby  remained  humbly  silent.  Aifectionate  deep 
regrets  moved  him  to  say  :  "  A  loss  irreparable.  We  have 
but  one  voice  of  sorrow.  And  how  sudden !  The  dear  lady 
had  no  suffering,  I  trust." 

"  She  fell  into  the  arms  of  Mr.  Durance.     She  died  in  hia 


408  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

arms.  She  was  unconscious,  he  says.  I  left  her  straining 
for  breath.  She  said  '  Victor ; '  she  tried  to  smile : — I  under- 
stood I  was  not  to  alarm  him." 

"  And  he  too  late  !  " 

"  He  was  too  late,  by  some  minutes." 

"  At  least  I  may  comfort.  Miss  Radnor  must  be  a  blessing 
to  him." 

4t  They  cannot  meet.     Her  presence  excites  him." 

That  radiant  home  of  all  hospitality  seemed  opening  on 
from  darker  chambers  to  the  deadly  dark.  The  immorality 
in  the  moral  situation  could  not  be  forgotten  by  one  who 
was  professionally  a  moralist.  But  an  incorruptible  beauty 
in  the  woman's  character  claimed  to  plead  for  her  memory. 
Even  the  rigorous  in  defence  of  righteous  laws  are  softened 
by  a  sinner's  death  to  hear  excuses,  and  may  own  a  relation- 
ship, haply  perceive  the  faint  nimbus  of  the  saint.  Death 
among  us  proves  us  to  be  still  not  so  far  from  the  Nature 
saying  at  every  avenue  to  the  mind  :  Earth  makes  all  sweet. 

Mr.  Durance  had  prophesied  a  wailful  end  ever  to  the 
carol  of  Optimists  !  Yet  it  is  not  the  black  view  which  is 
the  right  view.  There  is  one  between  :  the  path  adopted  by 
Septimus  Barm  by : — if  he  could  but  induce  his  brethren  to 
enter  on  it !  The  dreadful  teaching  of  circumstances  might 
help  to  the  persuading  of  a*  fair  young  woman,  under  his 
direction  .  .  .  having  her  hand  disengaged. — Mr.  Barmby 
startled  himself  in  the  dream  of  his  uninterred  passion  for 
the  maiden  :  he  chased  it,  seized  it,  hurled  it  hence,  as  a 
present  sacrilege : — constantly,  and  at  the  pitch  of  our 
highest  devotion  to  serve,  are  we  assailed  by  the  tempter ! 
Is  it,  that  the  love  of  woman  is  our  weakness?  For  if  so, 
then  would  a  celibate  clergy  have  grant  of  immunity.  But, 
alas,  it  is  not  so  with  them !  We  have  to  deplore  the  hearing 
of  reports  too  credible.  Again  we  are  pushed  to  contemplate 
woman  as  the  mysterious  obstruction  to  the  perfect  purity 
of  soul.  Nor  is  there  a  refuge  in  asceticism.  No  more 
devilish  nonrisher  of  pride  do  we  find  than  in  pain  volun- 
tarily embraced.  And  strangely,  at  the  time  when  our 
hearts  are  pledged  to  thoughts  upon  others,  they  are  led  by 
woman  to  glance  revolving  upon  ourself,  our  vile  self!  Mr. 
Barmby  clutched  it  by  the  neck. 

Light  now,  as  of  a  strong  memory  of  day  along  the  street, 
assisted  him  to  forget  himself  at  the  sight  of  the  inanimate 


THE    LAST.  409 

houses  of  this  London,  all  revealed  in  a  quietness  not  less 
immobile  than  tombstones  of  an  unending  cemetery,  with 
its  last  ghost  laid.  Did  men  but  know  it !  — The  habitual 
necessity  to  amass  matter  for  the  weekly  sermon,  set  him 
noting  his  meditative  exclamations,  the  noble  army  of 
platitudes  under  haloes,  of  good  use  to  men :  justifiably 
turned  over  in  his  mind  for  their  good.  He  had  to  think, 
that  this  act  of  the  justifying  of  the  act  reproached  him 
with  a  lack  of  due  emotion,  in  sympathy  with  agonized 
friends  truly  dear.  Drawing  near  the  hospitable  house,  his 
official  and  a  cordial  emotion  united,  as  we  see  sorrowful 
crape-wreathed  countenances.  His  heart  struck  heavily 
when  the  house  was  visible. 

Could  it  be  the  very  house?  The  look  of  it  belied  the 
tale  inside.     But  that  threw  a  ghostliness  on  the  look. 

Some  one  was  pacing  up  and  down.  They  greeted  Dudley 
Sowerby.  His  ability  to  speak  was  tasked.  They  gathered, 
that  mademoiselle  and  "a  Miss  Fridden  "  were  sitting  with. 
Kesta,  and  that  their  service  in  a  crisis  had  been  precious. 
At  such  times,  one  of  them  reflected,  woman  has  indeed  her 
place :  when  life's  battle  waxes  red.  Her  soul  must  be 
capable  of  mounting  to  the  level  of  the  man's,  then  !  It  is  a 
lesson  ! 

Dudley  said  he  was  waiting  for  Dr.  Themison  to  come 
forth.     He  could  not  tear  himself  from  sight  of  the  house. 

The  door  opened  to  Dr.  Themison  departing,  Colney 
Durance  and  Simeon  Fenellan  bare-headed.  Colney  showed 
a  lace  with  stains  of  the  lashing  of  tears. 

Dr.  Themison  gave  his  final  counsels.  "  Her  father  must 
not  see  her.  For  him,  it  may  have  to  be  a  specialist.  We 
will  hope  the  best.  Mr.  Dartrey  Fenellan  stays  beside 
him :— good.  As  to  the  ceremony  he  calls  for,  a  form  of  it 
might  soothe: — any  soothing  possible!  No  music.  I  will 
return  in  a  few  hours." 

He  went  on  foot. 

Sir.  Barmby  begged  advice  from  Colney  and  Simeon 
concerning  the  message  he  had  received — the  ceremony 
requiring  his  official  presidency.  Neither  of  them  replied. 
TIk  y  breathed  the  morning  air,  they  gave  out  long-drawn 
sighs  of  relief,  lookiug  on  the  trees  of  the  park. 

A  man  came  along  the  pavement,  working  slow  legs 
hurriedly,     binieon  ran  down  to  him. 


ilO  ONE   OF   OUR   CONQUERORS. 

"Humour,  as  much  as  you  can,"  Colney  said  to  Mr. 
Barmby.     "  Let  him  imagine." 

"  Miss  Eadnor  ?  " 

"  Not  to  speak  of  her  !  " 

"  The  daughter  he  so  loves  ?  " 

Mr.  Barmby's  tender  inquisitiveness  was  unanswered. 
Were  they  inducing  him  to  mollify  a  madman?  But  was  it 
possible  to  associate  the  idea  of  madness  with  Mr.  Radnor?" 

Simeon    ran    back.      "Jarniman,"    he   remarked.      "It's 


over 


"  Now ! "  Colney's  shoulders  expressed  the  comment. 
"Well,  now,  Mr.  Barmby,  you  can  do  the  part  desired. 
Come  in.     It's  morning  !  "     He  stared  at  the  sky. 

All  except  Dudley  passed  in. 

Mr.  Barmby  wanted  more  advice,  his  dilemma  being 
acute.  It  was  moderated,  though  not  more  than  moderated, 
when  he  was  informed  of  the  death  of  Mrs.  Burman  Kadnor  ; 
an  event  that  occurred,  according  to  Jarniman's  report, 
forty-five  minutes  after  Skepsey  had  a  second  time  called 
for  information  of  it  at  the  house  in  Regent's  Park  :  five 
hours  and  a  half,  as  Colney  made  his  calculation,  after  the 
death  of  Nataly.  He  was  urged  by  some  spur  of  senseless 
irony  to  verify  the  calculation  and  correct  it  in  the  minutes. 

Dudley  crossed  the  road.  No  sign  of  the  awful  interior 
was  on  any  of  the  windows  of  the  house  either  to  deepen 
awe  or  relieve.  They  were  blank  as  eyeballs  of  the  mind- 
less. He  shivered.  Death  is  our  common  cloak;  but 
Calamity  individualizes,  to  set  the  unwounded  speculating 
whether  indeed  a  stricken  man,  who  has  become  the  cause 
of  woeful  trouble,  may  not  be  pointing  a  moral.  Pacing  on 
the  Park  side  of  the  house,  he  saw  Skepsey  drive  up  and 
leap  out  with  a  gentleman,  Mr.  Radnor's  lawyer.  Could  it 
be,  that  there  was  no  Will  written?  Could  a  Will  be 
executed  now?  The  moral  was  more  forcibly  suggested. 
Dudley  beheld  this  Mr.  Victor  Radnor  successful  up  all  the 
main  steps,  persuasive,  popular,  brightest  of  the  elect  of 
Fortune,  felled  to  the  ground  within  an  hour,  he  and  all  his 
house  !  And  if  at  once  to  pass  beneath  the  ground,  the 
blow  would  have  seemed  merciful  for  him.  Or  if,  instead  of 
chattering  a  mixture  of  the  rational  and  the  monstrous,  he 
had  been  heard  to  rave  like  the  utterly  distraught.  Recol- 
lection of  some  of  the  things  he  shouted,  was  an  anguish ; — 


THE   LAST.  411 

A  notion  came  into  the  poor  man,  that  he  was  the  dead  one 
of  the  two,  and  he  cried  out :  "  Cremation  ?  No,  Colney's 
right,  it  robs  us  of  our  last  laugh.  I  lie  as  I  fall."  He 
"  had  a  confession  for  his  Nataly,  for  her  only,  for  no  one 
else."  He  had  "  an  Idea."  His  begging  of  Dudley  to  listen 
without  any  punctilio  (putting  a  vulgar  oath  before  it),  was 
the  sole  piece  of  unreasonableness  in  the  explanation  of  the 
idea :  and  that  was  not  much  wilder  than  the  stuiF  Dudley 
had  read  from  reports  of  Radical  speeches.  He  told  Dudley 
he  thought  him  too  young  to  be  4<  best  man  to  a  widower 
about  to  be  married,"  and  that  Barmby  was  "  coming  all 
haste  to  do  the  business,  because  of  no  time  to  spare." 

Dudley  knew  but  the  half,  and  he  did  not  envy  Dartrey 
Fenellan  his  task  of  watching  over  the  wreck  of  a  splendid 
intelligence,  humouring  and  restraining.  According  to  the 
rumours,  Mr.  Radnor  had  not  shown  the  symptoms  before 
the  appearance  of  his  daughter.  For  awhile  he  hung,  and 
then  fell,  like  an  icicle.  Nesta  came  with  a  cry  for  her 
father.  He  rose;  Dartrey  was  by.  Hugged  fast  in  iron 
muscles,  the  unhappy  creature  raved  of  his  being  a  caged 
lion.     These  things  Dudley  had  heard  in  the  house. 

There  are  scenes  of  life  proper  to  the  grave-cloth. 

Nataly's  dead  body  was  her  advocate  with  her  family, 
with  friends,  with  the  world.  Victor  had  more  need  of  a 
covering  shroud  to  keep  calamity  respected.  Earth  makes 
all  sweet:  and  we,  when  the  privilege  is  granted  us,  do 
well  to  treat  the  terribly  stricken  as  if  they  had  entered  to 
the  bosom  of  earth. 

That  night's  infinite  sadness  was  concentrated  upon  Nesta. 
She  had  need  of  her  strength  of  mind  and  body. 

The  night  went  past  as  a  year.  The  year  followed  it  as 
t  refreshing  night.  Slowly  lifting  her  from  our  abysses, 
it  was  a  good  angel  to  the  girl.  Permission  could  not  be 
given  for  her  to  see  her  father.  She  had  a  home  in  the 
modest  home  of  Louise  de  Seilles  on  the  borders  of  Dauphine ; 
and  with  French  hearts  at  their  best  in  winningness  around 
her,  she  learned  again,  as  an  art,  the  natural  act  of  breathing 
calmly ;  she  had  by  degrees  a  longing  for  the  snow-heights. 
When  her  imagination  could  perch  on  them  with  love  and 
pride,  she  began  to  recover  the  throb  for  a  part  in  human 
action.  It  set  her  nature  flowing  to  the  mate  she  had  chosen, 
who  was  her  counsellor,  her  supporter,  and  her  aword.     fc>h© 


412  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

had  awakened  to  new  life,  not  to  sink  "hack  upon  a  breast 
of  love,  though  thoughts  of  the  lover  were  as  blows  upon 
strung  musical  chords  at  her  bosom.  Her  union  with  Dartrey 
was  for  the  having  an  ally  and  the  being  an  ally,  in  resolute 
vision  of  strife  ahead,  through  the  veiled  dreams  that  bear 
the  blush.  This  was  behind  a  maidenly  demnreness.  Are 
not  young  women  hypocrites?  Who  shall  fathom  their 
guile!  A  girl  with  a  pretty  smile,  a  gentle  manner,  a 
liking  for  wild  flowers  up  on  the  rocks  ;  and  graceful  with 
resemblances  to  the  swelling  proportions  of  garden-fruits 
approved  in  young  women  by  the  connoisseur  eye  of  man ; 
distinctly  designed  to  embrace  the  s'ate  of  marriage,  that 
she  might  (a  girl  of  singularly  lucid  and  receptive  eyes) 
the  better  give  battle  to  men  touching  matters  which  they 
howl  at  an  eccentric  matron  for  naming.  So  it  was.  And 
the  yielding  of  her  hand  to  Dartrey,  would  have  appeared 
at  that  period  of  her  revival,  as  among  the  baser  compliances 
of  the  fleshly,  if  she  had  not  seen  in  him,  whom  she  owned 
for  leader,  her  fellow  soldier,  warrior  friend,  hero,  of  her 
own  heart's  mould,  but  a  greater. 

She  was  on  Como,  at  the  villa  of  the  Signora  Giulia 
Sanfredini,  when  Dudley's  letter  reached  her,  with  the 
supplicating  offer  of  the  share  of  his  earldom.  An  English 
home  meanwhile  was  proposed  to  her  at  ihe  house  of  his 
mother  the  Countess.  He  knew  that  he  did  not  write  to 
a  brilliant  heiress.  The  generosity  she  had  always  felt  that 
he  possessed,  he  thus  proved  in  figures.  They  are  convincing 
and  not  melting.  But  she  was  moved  to  tears  by  his  good- 
ness in  visiting  her  father,  as  well  as  by  the  hopeful  news 
he  sent.  He  wrote  delicately,  withholding  the  title  of  her 
father's  place  of  abode.  There  were  expectations  of  her 
father's  perfect  recovery ;  the  signs  were  auspicious ;  he 
appeared  to  be  restored  to  the  'likeness  to  himself  in  the 
instances  Dudley  furnished  : — his  appointment  with  him 
for  the  flute-duet  next  day;  and  particularly  his  enthusiastic 
satisfaction  with  the  largeness  and  easy  excellent  service  of 
the  residence  "  in  which  he  so  happily  found  himself  estab- 
lished." He  held  it  to  be,  "  on  the  whole,  superior  to  Lake- 
lands." The  smile  and  the  tear  rolled  together  in  Nesta 
reading  these  words.  And  her  father  spoke  repeatedly  of 
longing  to  embrace  his  Fredi,  of  the  joy  her  last  letter  had 
given  him,  of  his  intention  to  send  an  immediate  answer  : 


THE    LAST.  413 

and  he  showed  Dudley  a  pile  of  manuscript  ready  for  the 
post.  He  talked  of  public  affairs,  was  humorous  over  any 
extravagance  or  eccentricity  in  the  views  he  took ;  notably 
when  he  alluded  to  his  envy  of  little  Skepsey.  He  isaid  he 
really  did  envy ;  and  his  daughter  believed  it  and  saw  fair 
prospects  in  it. 

Her  grateful  reply  to  the  young  earl  conveyed  all  that 
was  perforce  ungentle,  in  the  signature  of  the  name  of  Nesta 
Victoria  Fenellan  : — a  name  he  was  to  hear  cited  among  the 
cushioned  conservatives,  and  plead  for  as  he  best  could  under 
a  pressure  of  disapprobation,  and  compelled  esteem,  and 
regrets. 

The  day  following  the  report  of  her  father's  wish  to  see 
h«jr,  she  and  her  husband  started  for  England.  On  that  day, 
Victor  breathed  his  last.  Dudley  had  seen  the  not  hopeful 
but  an  ominous  illumination  of  the  stricken  man  ;  for  whom 
came  the  peace  his  Nataly  had'  in  earth.  Often  did  Ne.sta 
conjure  up  to  vihion  the  palpitating  form  of  the  beloved 
mother  with  her  hand  at  her  mortal  wound  in  secret  through 
long  years  of  the  wearing  of  the  mask  to  keep  her  mate 
inspirited.  Her  gathered  knowledge  of  things  and  her 
ruthless  penetrativeness  made  it  sometimes  hard  for  her  to 
be  tolerant  of  a  world,  whose  tolerance  of  the  infinitely  evil 
stamped  blotches  on  its  face  and  shrieked  in  stains  across 
the  skin  beneath  its  gallant  garb.  That  was  only  when 
she  thought  of  it  as  the  world  condemning  her  mother.  She 
had  a  husband  able  and  ready,  in  return  for  corrections  of 
his  demon  temper,  to  trim  an  ardent  young  woman's  fanatical 
overflow  of  the  sisterly  sentiments;  scholarly  friends,  too, 
for  such  restrainings  from  excess  as  the  mind  obtains  in  a 
lamp  of  History  exhibiting  man's  original  sprouts  to  growth 
and  fitful  continuation  of  them.  Her  first  experience  of  the 
grief  that  is  in  pleasure,  for  those  who  have  passed  a  season, 
was  when  the  old  Concert-set  assembled  round  her.  When 
she  heard  from  the  mouth  of  a  living  woman,  that  she  had 
saved  her  from  going  under  the  world's  waggon-wheels,  and 
taught  her  to  know  what  is  actually  meant  by  the  good 
living  of  a  shapely  life,  Nesta  had  the  taste  of  a  harvest 
happiness  richer  than  her  recollection  of  the  bride's,  though 
never  was  bride  in  fuller  flower  to  her  lord  than  she  who 
brought  the  dower  of  an  equal  valiancy  to  Dartrey  Fenellan. 
You  are  aware  of  the  reasons,  the  many,  why  a  courageous 


414  ONE    OF    OUR    CONQUERORS. 

young  woman  requires  of  high  heaven,  far  more  than  the 
c< >mmendably  timid,  a  doughty  husband.  She  had  him; 
otherwise  would  that  puzzled  old  world,  which  beheld  her 
step  out  of  the  ranks  to  challenge  it,  and  could  not  blast 
her  personal  reputation,  have  commissioned  a  paw  to  maul 
her  character,  perhaps  instructing  the  gossips  to  murmur  of 
her  parentage.  Nesta  Victoria  Fenellan  had  ihe  husband 
who  would  have  the  world  respectful  to  any  brave  woman. 
This  one  was  his  wife. 

Daniel  Skepsey  rejoices  in  service  to  his  new  master, 
owing  to  the  scientific  opinion  he  can  at  any  moment  of  the 
day  apply  for,  as  to  the  military  defences  of  the  country; 
instead  of  our  attempting  to  arrest  the  enemy  by  vocifera- 
tions of  persistent  prayer: — the  sole  point  of  difference 
between  him  and  his  Matilda;  and  it  might  have  been  fatal 
but  that  Nesta's  intervention  was  persuasive.  The  two 
members  of  the  Army  first  in  the  field  to  enrol  and  give 
rank  according  to  the  merits  of  either,  to  both  sexes,  were 
made  one.  Colney  Durance  (practically  cynical  when  not 
fancifully,  men  said)  stood  by  Skepsey  at  the  altar.  His 
published  exercises  in  Satire  produce  a  flush  of  the  article 
in  the  Reviews  of  his  books.  Meat  and  wine  in  turn  fence 
the  Hymen  beckoning  Priscilla  and  Mr.  Pempton.  The 
forms  of  Religion  more  than  the  Channel's  division  of  races 
keep  Louise  de  Seilles  and  Mr.  Peridon  asunder :  and  in  the 
uniting  of  them  Colney  is  interested,  because  it  would  have 
so  pleased  the  woman  of  the  loyal  heart  no  longer  beating. 
He  let  Victor's  end  be  his  expiation  and  did  not  phrase 
blame  of  him.  He  considered  the  shallowness  of  the  abstract 
Optimist  exposed  enough  in  Victor's  history.  He  was  recon- 
ciled to  it  when,  looking  on  their  child,  he  discerned,  that 
for  a  cancelling  of  the  errors  chargeable  to  them,  the  father 
and  mother  had  kept  faith  with  Nature. 


THE  END. 


AUTHOB'S    POPULAR    EDITION. 


GEORGE  MEREDITH'S  WORKS. 


A/TESSRS.  ROBERTS   BROTHERS  beg  to  announce 
a  new  and  uniform  edition  of  the  Works  of  Mr. 
George  Meredith,  to  be  published  at  $1.50  each.     The 
edition  will  consist  of  the  following :  — 

THE   ORDEAL   OF   RICHARD    FEVEREL. 

EVAN   HARRINGTON. 

HARRY    RICHMOND. 

SANDRA    BELLONI. 

VITTORIA. 

RHODA    FLEMING. 

BEAUCHAMP'S    CAREER. 

THE   EGOIST. 

DIANA   OF   THE    CROSSWAYS. 

THE   SHAVING   OF   SHAGPAT,   AND    FARINA. 

ONE   OF   OUR    CONQUERORS. 


"  Mr.  Meredith's  fame  has  come  late,  but  it  is  now  assured.  We 
have  plenty  of  writing  men ;  he  is  resolved  to  produce  Literature.  .  .  . 
He  is  so  profusely  wise,  so  supremely  witty,  that  in  the  end  he  spoils 
one's  taste  for  any  work  save  the  highest,  and  that  too  in  spite  of  his 
style.  He  has  got  so  much  to  say  that  he  really  needs  a  language  of 
his  own   ,  .  .  Get  over  conventionalities,  and  you  find  you  have  met  our 


greatest  writer.  The  books  are  like  some  vast,  rich  mine,  where  you 
grub  through  sordid  clay  and  rubble  before  you  find  your  gem.  When 
the  jewel  is  yours,  make  it  an  abiding  possession.  We  repeat  that  this 
novelist  is  a  very  great  man,  and  no  other  words  can  describe  him."  — 
Vanity  Fair. 

"  It  was  announced  some  weeks  ago  that,  in  response  to  the  grow- 
ing popularity  of  Mr.  George  Meredith's  novels,  a  new  uniform  cheap 
edition  was  to  be  published.  This  was  good  news  to  many  of  us ;  and 
precisely  the  sort  of  edition  that  was  wanted  is  now  in  course  of  pub- 
lication. '  Evan  Harrington,'  one  of  the  best  of  Mr.  Meredith's  novels, 
is  now  before  us  in  handy,  solid,  single-volume  shape  ;  well  and  clearly 
printed,  paper  good,  binding  sober  and  strong ;  price  two  dollars. 
There  will  be  nine  volumes  in  all,  and  in  themselves  they  will  make  a 
not  inconsiderable  body  of  literature,  so  to  speak.  Genius  of  a  truly 
original  and  spontaneous  kind  shines  in  every  one  of  these  books ;  of 
fancy  there  is  only  too  much,  perhaps ;  with  healthy  benevolent  sym- 
pathy they  abound ;  and  if  there  exists  any  greater  master  of  his 
native  tongue  than  Mr.  Meredith,  we  have  yet  to  hear  of  the  gentle- 
man's name."  —  St.  James's  Gazette. 

"  Amongst  the  crowded  mass  of  books  which  at  this  season  of  the 
year  come  daily  from  the  press,  we  venture  to  doubt  whether  any 
deserve  so  well  as  Mr.  Meredith's  novels  the  name  of  literature. 
When  we  speak  of  literature  we  mean  something  distinct  from  jour- 
nalism, something  distinct  from  book-making,  something  on  which 
finish  as  well  as  labor  has  been  bestowed,  something  in  fact  that 
intends  to  reach  the  land  of  matters  unforgot.  .  .  .  Mr.  Meredith's 
novels  certainly  have  the  qualities  which  we  marked  as  essential  to 
permanent  literature.  They  have  finish,  even  elaboration  of  style. 
They  abound  in  epigram.  They  contain  the  wisest  and  most  humor- 
ous reflections  on  life.  They  can  move  you  to  tears  of  which  no  one 
need  be  ashamed.  They  can  set  before  you  pictures  of  happy  love, 
or  of  youth  and  nature  that  can  never  be  forgotten  ;  scenes  that  flash 
before  your  eyes  when  your  thoughts  are  elsewhere.  They  are  replete 
characters,  sometimes  real  characters,  fresh  from  nature,  sometimes 
types,  as  in  the  manner  of  the  classical  comedians.  Above  all,  in 
certain  passages,  is  a  touch  of  Shakespearian  richness,  reserve, 
passion,  and  dignity,  which  one  knows  not  where  to  look  for  outside 


Mr.  Meredith's  domain.  .  .  .  Whoever  reads  Mr.  Meredith  does  not 
waste  his  time.  He  is  in  good  company,  among  gentlemen  and  ladies ; 
above  all,  in  the  company  of  a  Genius."  —  Daily  News. 

"  It  is  certainly  well  that  at  least  one  writer  of  genius  in  an  age 
should  disregard  the  general  level  of  heads,  if  only  that  readers  may  be 
now  and  then  reminded  that  there  are  more  things  on  earth  than  are 
dreamt  of  in  everyday  philosophy.  Such  a  work  as  '  Diana  of  the 
Crossways'  helps  at  any  rate  to  keep  up  the  falling  standard  of 
fiction.  It  is  well  worth  something  more  than  merely  reading.  Mr. 
Meredith  is  professedly  a  psychologist,  and  is  one  of  the  very  few 
English  prose  writers  who  have  a  perfect  right  to  make  such  a  pro- 
fession, —  he  is  a  psychologist  not  because  he  cannot  tell  a  story,  but 
because  he  can.  .  .  .  '  Diana  of  the  Crossways '  must  remain  one  of 
the  finest  of  all  studies  of  feminine  nature,  and  is  well  worth  the  whole 
of  the  time  that  would  otherwise  be  given  to  the  swarm  of  novels  that 
are  twice  as  easily  read  and  a  hundred  times  as  easily  forgotten."  — 
Graphic. 

"  To  our  thinking,  '  Diana  of  the  Crossways '  is  one  of  the  best  of 
all  Mr.  Meredith's  books.  It  is  a  study  of  character,  and  it  is  also  a 
study  of  emotion;  it  is  a  picture  of  fact  and  the  world,  and  it  is 
touched  with  generous  romance ;  it  is  rich  in  kindly  comedy,  and  it 
ubounds  in  natural  passion  ;  it  sets  forth  a  selection  of  many  human 
elements,  and  is  joyful  and  sorrowful,  wholesome  with  laughter  and 
fruitful  of  tears,  as  life  itself.  The  book  is  instinct  with  imagination, 
is  quick  with  interest  as  life  itself,  is  full  of  matter  and  movement  as 
a  corner  of  the  actual  world.  Not  since  '  The  Egoist '  has  there 
appeared  an  essay  in  fiction  at  once  so  novel  and  so  true,  so  personal 
and  peculiar,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so  pregnant  and  convincing.  .  .  . 
Every  touch  is  to  the  purpose,  every  sentence  packed  with  significance 
and  luminous  with  insight.  Diana's  experiences  are  so  much  life  taken 
in  the  fact.  She  speaks,  and  it  is  from  her  very  heart ;  she  suffers 
and  rejoices,  and  is  in  her  own  flesh  and  her  own  soul ;  she  thinks, 
aspires,  labors,  wins,  loses,  and  wins  again  with  an  intensity  of  per- 
ception, and  emotional  directness  and  completeness,  that,  so  cunning 
is  the  author's  hand  and  so  unerring  his  principle  of  selection,  affects 
the  reader  more  powerfully  than  the  spectacle  of  nature  itself,  —  as  a 
great  portrait  is  more  persuasive  and  imposing  than  its  original,  as  a 


perfect  tragedy  is  more  appalling  than  the  circumstance,  however 
dreadful,  on  which  it  is  based.  This  is  indeed  the  merit  and  dis- 
tinction of  art :  to  be  more  real  than  reality,  to  be  not  nature,  but 
nature's  essence.  It  is  the  artist's  function  not  to  copy,  but  to  synthe- 
size ;  to  eliminate  from  that  gross  confusion  of  actuality,  which  is  his 
raw  material,  whatever  is  accidental,  idle,  irrelevant,  and  select  for 
perpetuation  that  only  which  is  appropriate  and  immortal.  This  is 
what  Mr.  Meredith  has  done  in  '  Diana  of  the  Crossways.'  He  has 
considered  his  material  with  '  that  eye  of  steady  flame '  which  he 
discerns  in  his  Shakespeare,  and  the  outcome  of  his  contemplation  is 
Diana  Merion, —  that  is  to  say,  such  a  sublimation  of  character  and 
life  as  suggested  the  kindred  achievements  of  Rosalind  among  women 
and  Lovelace  among  men.  .  .  .  Mr.  Meredith  writes  such  English  as 
is  within  the  capacity  of  no  other  living  man;  and  in  epigram  as  in 
landscape,  in  dialogue  as  in  analysis,  in  description  as  in  comment 
and  reflection,  he  is  an  artist  in  words  of  whom  his  country  may  be 
proud."  —  Athenceum. 

♦ 

Send  for  our  New  descriptive  Catalogue  (free). 

— — • 

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Messrs.  Roberts  BrotJiers'  Publications. 

BALLADS  AND   POEMS 

OF  TRAGIC   LIFE. 

By  GEORGE    MEREDITH, 

AUTHOR   OF    "RICHARD    FEVEREL,"    "  DIANA   OF   THE    CROSSWAYS,"   ETC. 

ONE   VOLUME.     l6mo.     CLOTH.     PRICE,    $1.50. 


The  "  Ballads  and  Poems  of  Tragic  Life  "  include  four  productions  that  ant 
not  only  to  be  ranked  among  Mr.  Meredith's  best  work,  but  which  must  stand  in 
the  forefront  of  modern  poetical  literature.  These  are,  first,  the  ode  "France, 
December,  1870,"  then  "The  Nuptials  of  Attila,"  and  then,  a  long  way  after 
either,  "The  Young  Princess,"  and  "  King  Harold's  Trance."  "The  Song  of 
Theolinda"  is  also  of  noteworthy  power.  Of  all,  the  ode  to  France  is  supreme 
in  its  majesty,  its  wisdom,  its  grand,  sonorous  versification.  One  cannot  read  it, 
or  any  of  the  others  just  mentioned,  and  deny  that  Mr.  Meredith,  with  all  his 
eccentricities,  is  in  truth  a  poet  —  Literary  World. 

Rich  in  language,  with  startling  flashes,  closely  condensed  in  thought,  full  of 
movement,  passion,  and  color,  these  ballads  and  poems  betray  the  same  genius 
that  the  novels  of  George  Meredith  reveal  to  the  world.  They  are  truly  tragic; 
the  horror,  the  pain,  the  woe,  is  worked  out  with  relentless  realism,  and  burned 
in  with  deep,  striking  reiterations-  Both  in  scope  of  conception  and  in  a  certain 
reckless  daring  in  the  use  of  language,  they  are  of  marvellous  power.  It  is  safe 
to  say  no  such  tragic  poems  have  ever  been  written  in  America,  nor,  during 
late  years  at  least,  in  England.  —  Yale  Literary  Magazine. 

Browning  and  George  Meredith  go  well  together,  though  we  esteem  the  latter 
as  the  oetter  ballad  writer.  His  company  of  readers  is  choice,  but  sparse,  and 
yet  growing.  If  you  have  no  acquaintance  with  Meredith's  muse,  improve  the 
opportunity  presented  to  you  in  "  Ballads  and  Poems  of  Tragic  Life."  It  holds 
"  Phaethon,"  that  wonderful  attempt  in  the  Galliambic  measure.  —  Philadel- 
phia Press. 

Here  is  poetry  of  stern,  dramatic  quality,  heavy  in  respect  to  theme,  though 
the  handling  shows  delicacy  enough  of  touch  ;  masculine,  in  that  it  possesses 
more  force  and  strength  than  grace ;  but  above  all  it  is  deeply  earnest,  as  all  trag- 
edy must  be  to  be  real  and  impressive.  Without  exception  these  poems  deal 
with  the  sober,  mournful  side  of  life,  yet  they  somehow  escape  being  morbid. 
Perhaps  they  are  too  tragic  for  the  tastes  of  most  of  us,  the  meat  is  too  strong  ; 
but  it  is  wholesome  diet,  nevertheless,  which  fortifies  and  invigorates  the  moral 
man,,  if  it  does  not  cheer.  —  Washington  Capital. 


Sold  by  all  booksellers.      Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of 
pricey  by  the  publishers, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS.  Boston. 


Messrs,  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


THE  PILGRIM'S  SCRIP; 

OR, 

WIT  AND  WISDOM  OF  GEORGE  MEREDITH. 

With  Selections  from  his  Poetry,  a  Critical  and  Biogra- 
phical Introduction,  and  a  Portrait.  Square  i6mo.  Cloth. 
Price,  $100. 


It  has  taken  a  long  time  for  the  world  to  appreciate  George  Meredith, 
to  even  understand  him ;  but  to-day  the  recognition  of  him  has  come,  and 
there  is  no  question  but  that  he  will  be  fully  remembered  and  live  among 
the  romance  writers  of  the  last  half  of  the  present  century.  For  spiritual 
philosophy  and  golden  wisdom  of  life  "  The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feveral " 
must  have  a  permanent  place  in  the  literary  world.  Mrs.  M.  R.  F.  Gil- 
man,  who  had  made  the  selections  to  be  found  in  this  volume,  fully  under- 
stands Mr.  George  Meredith's  worth,  and  it  is  in  the  hope  "  of  gaining  for 
this  philosophical  novelist"  an  opportunity  of  being  better  appreciated 
that  these  selections  have  been  made.  —  N.  Y.  Times. 

Steadily  the  American  reader  of  light  literature  is  beginning  to  recog- 
nize in  George  Meredith  the  greatest  living  writer  of  English  fiction,  —  a 
man  who  is  bound  by  none  of  the  conventional  rules  which  hamper  and 
close  in  the  general  novelist,  who  is  original  in  his  methods,  and  who  is 
apparently  utterly  careless  as  to  what  the  public  thinks  or  says  of  his  work 
or  of  himself.  He  works  by  no  set  rule;  one  cannot  believe  that  his 
books  are  planned.  They  are  begun,  and  they  go  on,  like  a  man's  life, 
and  often  stop  as  suddenly  and  unexpectedly.  They  are  not  well  rounded 
and  complete ;  no  man's  life  is.  But  they  are  like  life.  Their  people  are 
real  people,  and  things  happen  in  them  as  they  happen  to  us.  They  are, 
besides,  full  of  meat.  They  make  us  think.  There  is  no  taint  of  mor- 
bidity or  moral  unhealthiness  in  them,  and  no  attempt  to  point  a  moral. 
The  reading  public  is  indebted  to  Roberts  Brothers  for  the  two  excel- 
lent editions  of  Meredith  which  have  been  brought  out  within  the  past 
year. 

This  house  has  also  just  brought  out  a  little  volume,  "  The  Pilgrim's 
Scrip,"  made  up  of  choice  extracts  from  Meredith's  novels  and  poems, 
which  will  do  much  to  turn  attention  to  that  author.  It  is  compiled  by 
Mrs.  M.  R.  F.  Gilman,  whose  excellent  taste  and  keen  literary  judg- 
ment have  guided  her  unerringly  to  the  best  things,  and  have  enabled  her 
to  give  the  author  "in  little"  to  his  admirers,  and  to  furnish  those  who 
have  yet  to  make  acquaintance  with  his  writings  a  taste  that  will  grow  to 
an  appetite  for  a  feast.  —  Transcript. 


Sold  everywhere.     Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price, 
by  the  publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Boston. 


GEORGE  SAND'S  NOVELS. 


The  excellence  of  George  Sand,  as  we  understand  it,  lies  in  her  compre< 
hension  of  the  primitive  elements  of  mankind.  She  has  conquered  her 
way  into  the  human  heart ;  and  whether  it  is  at  peace  or  at  war  is  the  same 
to  her,  for  she  is  mistress  of  all  its  moods.  No  woman  before  ever  painted 
the  passions  and  the  emotions  with  such  force  and  fidelity,  and  with  such 
consummate  art.  Whatever  else  she  may  be,  she  is  always  an  artist.  — 
Putnam 's  Magazine. 

Roberts  Brothers  propose  to  publish  a  series  of  translations  of  George 
Sand's  better  novels.  We  can  hardly  say  that  all  are  worth  appearing  in 
English  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  "  better  "  list  will  comprise  a  good  many 
which  are  worth  translating,  and  among  these  is  "  Mauprat,''  —  though  by 
;iio  means  the  best  of  them.  Written  to  show  the  possibility  of  constancy 
in  man,  a  love  inspired  before  and  continuing  through  marriage,  it  is  itself 
a  contradiction  to  a  good  many  of  the  popular  notions  respecting  the 
author,  —  who  is  generally  supposed  to  be  as  indifferent  to  the  sanctities 
of  the  marriage  relation  as  was  her  celebrated  ancestor,  Augustus  of 
Saxony.  .  .  .  The  translation  is  admirable.  It  is  seldom  that  one  reads 
such  good  English  in  a  work  translated  from  any  language.  —  Old  and 
New. 

MAUPRAT. 

ANTONIA. 

MONSIEUR   SYLVESTRE. 

THE   SNOW   MAN. 

THE   MILLER   OF   ANGIBAULT. 

THE   BAGPIPERS. 

NANON. 

7  volumes,  i2mo.  Half  Russia.  Uniform  in  size  and  style 
with  "  Balzac's  Works." 

Price,  $1.50  per  Volume. 


Sold  everywhere.    Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  the  advertised  price^ 
by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,   Boston. 


BALZAC  IN  ENGLISH. 


An  Historical  Mystery. 

Translated  by  KATHARINE  PRESCOTT  WORMELEY. 
12mo.    Half  Russia.    Uniform  with  Balzac's  Works.    Price,  $1.50. 


An  Historical  Mystery\%  the  title  given  to  "  Une  T^nebreuse  Affaire,"  which 
has  just  appeared  in  the  series  of  translations  of  Honore"  de  Balzac's  novels,  by 
Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley  This  exciting  romance  is  full  of  stirring  interest, 
and  is  distinguished  by  that  minute  analysis  of  character  in  which  its  eminent 
author  excelled.  The  characters  stand  boldly  out  from  the  surrounding  incidents, 
and  with  a  fidelity  as  wonderful  as  it  is  truthful.  Plot  and  counterplot  follow 
each  other  with  marvellous  rapidity;  and  around  the  exciting  days  when  Na- 
poleon was  First  Consul,  and  afterward  when  he  was  Emperor,  a  mystery  is 
woven  in  which  some  royalists  are  concerned  that  is  concealed  with  masterly 
ingenuity  until  the  novelist  sees  fit  to  take  his  reader  into  his  confidence.  The 
heroine,  Laurence,  is  a  remarkably  strong  character;  and  the  love-story  in  which 
she  figures  is  refreshing  in  its  departure  from  the  beaten  path  of  the  ordinary 
writer  of  fiction.  Michu,  her  devoted  servant,  has  also  a  marked  individuality, 
which  leaves  a  lasting  impression.  Napoleon,  Talleyrand,  Fouche,  and  other 
historical  personages,  appear  in  the  tale  in  a  manner  that  is  at  once  natural  and 
impressive.  As  an  addition  to  a  remarkable  series,  the  book  is  one  that  no 
admirer  of  Balzac  can  afford  to  neglect.  Miss  Wormeley's  translation  reproduces 
the  peculiarities  of  the  author's  style  with  the  faithfulness  for  which  she  has 
hitherto  been  celebrated. — Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

It  makes  very  interesting  reading  at  this  distance  of  time,  however;  and  Balzac 
has  given  to  the  legendary  account  much  of  the  solidity  of  history  by  his  adroit 
manipulation.  For  the  main  story  it  must  be  said  that  the  action  is  swifter  and 
more  varied  than  in  many  of  the  author's  books,  and  that  there  are  not  wanting 
many  of  those  cameo-like  portraits  necessary  to  warn  the  reader  against  slovenly 
perusal  of  this  carefully  written  story;  for  the  complications  are  such,  and  the  re- 
lations between  the  several  plots  involved  so  intricate,  that  the  thread  might 
easily  be  lost  and  much  of  the  interest  be  thus  destroyed  The  usual  Balzac 
compactness  is  of  course  present  throughout,  to  give  body  and  significance  to  the 
work,  and  the  stage  is  crowded  with  impressive  figures.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  find  a  book  which  gives  a  better  or  more  faithful  illustration  of  one  of  the 
strangest  periods  in  French  history,  in  short ;  and  its  attraction  as  a  story  is  at 
least  equalled  by  its  value  as  a  true  picture  of  the  time  it  is  concerned  with.  The 
translation  is  as  spirited  and  close  as  Miss  Wormeley  has  taught  us  to  expect  in 
this  admirable  series.  —  New  York  Tribune. 

One  of  the  most  intensely  interesting  novels  that  Balzac  ever  wrote  is  An 
Historical  Mystery,  whose  translation  has  just  been  added  to  the  preceding 
novels  that  compose  the  "Comedie  Humaine  "  so  admirably  translated  by  Miss 
Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley.  The  story  opens  in  the  autumn  of  1803,  in  the 
time  of  the  Empire,  and  the  motive  is  in  deep-laid  political  plots,  which  are  re- 
vealed with  the  subtle  and  ingenious  skill  that  marks  the  art  of  Balzac.  .  .  .  The 
story  is  a  deep-laid  political  conspiracy  of  the  secret  service  of  the  ministry  of 
the  police.  Talleyrand,  M'lle  de  Cinq-Cygne,  the  Princess  de  Cadigan,  Louis 
XVI I L,  as  well  as  Napoleon,  figure  as  characters  of  this  thrilling  historic  ro- 
mance. An  absorbing  love-story  is  also  told,  in  which  State  intrigue  plays  an 
important  part.  The  character-drawing  is  faithful  to  history,  and  the  story  illu- 
minates French  life  in  the  early  years  of  the  century  as  if  a  calcium  light  were 
thrown  on  the  scene. 

It  is  a  romance  of  remarkable  power,  and  one  of  the  most  deeply  fascinating 
of  all  the  novels  of  the  "Comedie  Humaine." 


Sold  by  all  booksellers.     Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of 
price  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,   Boston. 


BALZAC  IN  ENGLISH. 

The  Magic  Skin. 

(LA   PEAU    DE    CHAGRIN.) 

TRANSLATED   BY 

KATHARINE    PRESCOTT    WORMELEY. 


"The  Magic  Skin  "  is  a  great  novel,— great  in  its  conception,  great  in  its 
execution,  and  great  in  the  impression  it  leaves  upon  the  reader's  mind.  Those 
who  deny  that  Balzac  is  a  moral  teacher  will  retract  their  opinion  after  reading  this 
powerful  allegory.  It  is  a  picturesque  representation  of  the  great  moral  truth  that 
in  life  we  have  to  pay  for  every  excess  we  enjoy.  In  the  gradual  shrinking  of  the 
"Magic  Skin"  we  see  the  inevitable  law  that  by  uncontrolled  dissipation  of  body 
or  mind  we  use  up  our  physical  strength  and  exhaust  our  vitality.  In  that  beauti- 
ful, cold,  fascinating  character,  Fedora,  the  writer  shows  us  the  glittering  world  of 
fashion  and  frivolity  which  men  pursue  vainly  and  find  to  their  cost  only  dust  and 
ashes.  In  the  gentle,  loving,  and  devoted  Pauline,  Balzac  represents  the  lasting 
and  pure  pleasures  of  domestic  life.  But  in  Raphael's  short  enjoyment  of  them 
we  see  the  workings  of  that  inflexible  law,  "  Whatever  ye  sow  that  shall  ye  also 
reap."  In  the  vivid,  striking,  realistic  picture  of  Parisian  life  which  Balzac  pre- 
sents to  us  in  "  The  Magic  Skin,"  the  writer  had  a  conscious  moral  purpose.  We 
know  of  no  more  awful  allegory  in  literature.  — Boston  Transcript. 

The  story  is  powerful  and  original ;  but  its  readers  will  be  most  affected  by  its 
marvellous  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  the  deep-cutting  dissection  of  charac- 
ter which  makes  the  attempts  of  our  own  analytical  novelists  appear  superficial 
and  experimental.  Life  in  all  classes  of  the  Paris  of  Louis  Philippe's  time  is  por- 
trayed in  the  strongest  lights  and  shadows,  and  with  continual  flashes  of  wit, 
satire,  and  sarcasm  which  spare  neither  politician,  philosopher,  priest,  poet,  jour- 
nalist, artist,  man  of  the  world,  nor  woman  of  the  world.  Through  a  maze  of 
heterogeneous  personages  Raphael,  the  hero,  is  carried,  pursued  by  the  relentless 
Magic  Skin,  which  drives  him  mercilessly  to  his  doom.  The  vices  oi  high  society 
are  laid  bare  ;  but  there  is  also  a  beautiful  exposition  of  purity  in  the  humble  life 
of  Pauline,  who  is  the  good  angel  of  the  story.  In  translating  "  La  Peau  de  Cha- 
grin" Miss  Wormeley  has  done  work  that  is  at  once  skilful  and  discreet.  It  is  a 
man's  book,  virile  though  not  vulgar,  and  exposing  prominences  in  French  social 
views  such  as  most  writers  veil  in  obscurities.  Here  all  is  frankly  and  honestly 
shown,  but  by  a  man  of  genius,  who  had  no  more  need  of  prudish  hypocrisy  than 
Shakespeare. 

Mr.  Parsons's  thoughtful  preface  is  a  fitting  introduction  to  the  most  wonder- 
ful of  all  Balzac's  romances.  It  is  not  a  whit  too  strong  for  Mr.  Parsons  tc  write 
that,  saving  Shakespeare,  "no  man  could  have  been  better  fitted  to  examine  men- 
tal processes,  to  gauge  their  effects,  to  estimate  their  significance,  and  to  define 
their  nature  and  scope  ''  than  Balzac.  If  Balzac  had  been  a  German,  and  not  a 
Frenchman  of  the  French,  this  book  of  his  would  be  as  much  of  an  epoch-maker 
as  Goethe's  "  Faust."  It  may  take  years  before  the  fuller  appreciation  of  "  La 
Peau  de  Chagrin  "  comes,  but  it  is  a  study  of  life  which  will  be  studied  in  cen- 
turies yet  to  come.  —  New  York  Times. 


One  handsome  ntno  volume,  uniform  with  "  Pere  Goriot,"  "  The 
Duchesse'  de  Lan^eais,"  "Cesar  Birotteau,"  "Eugenie  Grandet;' 
"Cousin  Pons,"  "The  Country  Doctor;'  "  The  Two  Brothers,"  "  The 
Alkahest,"  and  u  Modeste  Mignon."  Bound  in  half  morocco,  French 
style.    Price,  $1.50. 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

Boston. 


BALZAC     IN     ENGLISH. 

COUSIN  BETTR 


TRANSLATED  BY 

KATHARINE    PRESCOTT    WORMELEY. 


He  [Balzac]  does  not  make  Vice  the  leading  principle  of  life.  The  most  terrible 
punishment  invariably  awaits  transgressors.  .  .  •  Psychologically  considered, 
5<  Cousin  Bette  "  with  the  "  Peau  de  Chagrin  "  and  "  The  Alkahest "  are  the  most 

Eowerful  of  all  Balzac's  studies.  The  marvellous  acquaintance  this  romance-writer 
ad  with  all  phases  and  conditions  of  French  men  and  women  has  never  been 
more  strongly  accentuated.  For  a  French  romance  presenting  difficulties  in 
translation,  Miss  Wormeley's  work  is  excellent.  Its  faithfulness  is  even  remark- 
able. We  can  hardly  conceive  that  after  this  series  is  completed  Balzac  will 
remain  unknown  or  unappreciated  by  American  readers.  — New  York  Times. 

Balzac  aspired  to  paint  French  life,  especially  Parisian  life,  in  all  its  aspects, — 
"  the  great  modern  monster  with  its  every  face,"  to  use  his  own  words  ;  and  in  no 
one  of  his  novels  is  his  insight  keener,  his  coloring  bolder,  or  his  disclosures  of  the 
corruptions  of  city  life  more  painfully  realistic,  than  in  "  Cousin  Bette."  .  .  .  Not 
one  of  the  admirably  rendered  series  shows  more  breadth,  skill,  and  sympathy 
with  every  characteristic  of  the  great  French  author  than  does  this.  And  it  is 
quite  a  marvel  of  translation. —  The  American,  Philadelphia. 

'T  is  true  the  book  is  not  for  babes,  but  he  must  have  strange  views  of  innocence 
who  would  ignore  the  influence  for  good  inherent  in  such  a  work.  Ignorance  con- 
stitutes but  a  sorry  shield  against  the  onslaughts  of  temptation.  It  is  well  if  wis- 
dom can  be  so  cheaply  got  as  by  the  perusal  of  the  book.  — American  Hebrew. 

It  is  an  awful  picture,  but  it  is  emphatically  a  work  of  genius.  ...  It  cannot 
be  said  that  "  Cousin  Bette  "  is  a  book  for  those  who  like  only  optimistic  presen- 
tations of  life.  It  is  a  study  in  morbid  pathology  ;  an  inquiry  into  the  working  of 
passions  and  vices,  the  mischief  actually  caused  by  what  in  all  human  societies  is 
too  patent  and  too  constantly  in  evidence  to  be  denied  or  ignored.  .  .  He  [BaL 
zac]  must  be  judged  by  the  scientific  standard,  and  from  that  point  of  view  there 
can  be  no  hesitation  in  declaring  "  Cousin  Bette  "  a  most  powerful  work.  —  New 
York  Tribune. 

And  there  is  much  in  the  characters  that  is  improper  and  fortunately  counter  to 
our  civilization;  still  the  tone  concerning  these  very  things  is  a  healthy  one,  and 
Balzac's  belief  in  purity  and  goodness,  his  faith  in  the  better  part  of  humanity,  is 
shown  in  the  beautiful  purity  of  Madame  Hulot,  and  the  lovely  chastity  of  Hor- 
tense.  In  "  Cousin  Bette,"  as  in  all  Balzac's  works,  he  manifests  a  familiarity 
with  the  ethics  of  life  which  has  gained  for  him  the  exalted  position  as  the  greatest 
of  French  novelists.  —  St.  Paul  Dispatch. 

One  handsome  \zmo  volume,  uniform  -with  "  Pere  Goriot,"  "  The 
Duchesse  de  Langeais,"  "  Cesar  Birotteau,"  "  Eugenie  Grandet," 
"Cousin  Pons,"  "  The  Country  Doctor?  "  The  Two  Brother*,"  "  The 
Alkahest?  "  The  Magic  Skin?  and  "  Modeste  Mignon."  Bound  in  half 
morocco,  French  Style.     Price,  #1.50. 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

Boston. 


BALZAC     IN     ENGLISH 


LOUIS  LAMBERT. 


"As  for  Balzac,"  writes  Oscar  Wilde,  "he  was  a  most  remarkable  combination 
of  the  artistic  temperament  with  the  scientific  spirit."  It  is  his  artistic  tempera- 
ment which  reveals  itself  the  most  clearly  in  the  novel  before  us.'  As  we  read 
"  Louis  Lambert,"  we  feel  convinced  that  it  is  largely  autobiographical.  It  is  a 
psychical  study  as  delicate  as  Amiel's  Journal,  and  nearly  as  spiritual.  We  follow 
the  life  of  the  sensitive,  poetical  schoolboy,  feeling  that  it  is  a  true  picture  of  Bal- 
zac's own  youth.  When  the  literary  work  on  which  the  hero  had  written  for  years 
in  all  his  spare  moments  is  destroyed,  we  do  not  need  to  be  told  by  Mr.  Parsons 
that  this  is  an  episode  in  Balzac's  own  experience  ;  we  are  sure  of  this  fact  already ; 
and  no -writer  could  describe  so  sympathetically  the  deep  spiritual  experiences  of 
an  aspiring  soul  who  had  not  at  heart  felt  them  keenly.  No  materialist  could  have 
written  "  Louis  Lambert."  —  Boston  Transcript. 

Of  all  of  Balzac's  works  thus  far  translated  by  Miss  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley, 
the  last  in  the  series,  "  Louis  Lambert,"  is  the  most  difficult  of  comprehension. 
It  is  the  second  of  the  author's  Philosophical  Studies,  "The  Magic  Skin"  being 
the  first,  and  "  Seraphita,"  shortly  to  be  published,  being  the  third  and  last._  In 
"Louis  Lambert"  Balzac  has  presented  a  study  of  a  noble  soul  — a  spirit  of 
exalted  and  iofty  aspirations  which  chafes  under  the  fetters  of  earthly  existence, 
and  has  no  sympathy  with  the  world  of  materialism.  This  pure-souled  genius  is 
made  the  medium,  moreover,  for  the  enunciation  of  the  outlines  of  a  system  of 
philosophy  which  goes  to  the  very  roots  of  Oriental  occultism  and  mysticism  as  its 
source,  and  which  thus  reveals  the  marvellous  scope  of  Balzac's  learning.  _  The 
scholarly  introduction  to  the  book  by  George  Frederic  Parsons,  in  addition  to 
throwing  a  great  deal  of  valuable  light  upon  other  phases  of  the  work,  shows  how 
many  of  the  most  recent  scientific  theories  are  directly  in  Hne  with  the  doctrines 
broadly  set  forth  by  Balzac  nearly  sixty  years  ago.  The  book  is  one  to  be  studied 
rather  than  read  ;  and  it  is  made  intelligible  by  the  extremely  able  introduction 
and  by  Miss  Wormeley's  excellent  translation.  —  The  Book-Buyer. 

"  Louis  Lambert,"  with  the  two  other  members  of  the  Trilogy,  "  La  Peau  de 
Chagrin"  and  "Seraphita,"  is  a  book  which  presents  many  difficulties  to  the 
student.  It  deals  with  profound  and  unfamiliar  subjects,  and  the  meaning  of  the 
author  by  no  means  lies  on  the  surface.  It  is  the  study  of  a  great,  aspiring  soul 
enshrined  in  a  feeble  body,  the  sword  wearing  out  the  scabbard,  the  spirit  soaring 
away  from  its  prison-house  of  flesh  to  its  more  congenial  home.  It  is  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  study  of  the  destructive  and  debasing  process  which  we  see  in  the 
"  Peau  de  Chagrin."  It  stands  midway  between  this  study  of  the  mean  and  base 
and  that  noble  presentation  of  the  final  evolution  of  a  soul  on  the  very  borders  of 
Divinity  which  Balzac  gives  us  in  "  Seraphita." 

The  reader  not  accustomed  to  such  high  ponderings  needs  a  guide  to  place  him 
en  rapport  with  the  Seer.  Such  a  guide  and  friend  he  finds  in  Mr.  Parsons, 
whose  introduction  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pages  is  by  no  means  the  least  valu- 
able part  of  this  volume.  It  is  impossible  to  do  more  than  sketch  the  analysis  of 
Balzac's  philosophy  and  the  demonstration  so  successfully  attempted  by  Mr.  Par- 
sons of  the  exact  correlation  between  many  of  Balzac's  speculations  and  the 
newest  scientific  theories.  The  introduction  is  so  closely  written  that  it  defies 
much  condensation.  It  is  so  intrinsically  valuable  that  it  will  thoroughly  repay 
careful  and  minute  study.  — Front  "  Light"  a  London  Journal  of  Psychical  and 
Occult  Research,  March  9,1889. 

♦ 

One  handsome  \2rn0  volume,  uniform  -with  "  Pere  Goriot,"  "  The 
Duchesse  de  Langeais,"  "  Cesar  Birotteau,"  "  Etigenie  Grandef,u 
"Cousin  Pons,"  "  The  Country  Doctor?  "  The  Two  Brothers,"  "  Th6 
Alkahest?  "Modeste  Mignon,"  "  The  Magic  Skin,"  "Cousin  Bette." 
Bound  in  half  morocco,  Prench  Style.     Price,  #1.50. 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

Boston. 


BALZAC    IN    ENGLISH. 


SONS  OF  THE  SOIL. 

Translated  by  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley. 


Many  critics  have  regarded  "  Les  Paysans,"  to  which  Miss  Wormeley, 
in  her  admirable  translation,  has  given  the  title  "  Sons  of  the  Soil,"  as  one 
of  Balzac's  strongest  novels  ;  and  it  cannot  fail  to  impress  those  who  read 
this  English  rendering  of  it.  Fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  Balzac  made  a  pro- 
found study  of  the  effects  produced  by  the  Revolution  upon  the  peasants 
of  the  remote  provinces  of  France,  and  he  has  here  elaborated  these  obser- 
vations in  a  powerful  picture  of  one  of  those  strange,  disguised,  but  fero- 
cious social  wars  which  were  at  the  time  not  only  rendered  possible,  but 
promoted  by  three  potent  influences,  namely,  the  selfishness  of  the  rich 
landholders;  the  land-hunger  and  stimulated  greed  of  the  peasants;  and 
the  calculated  rapacity  of  middle-class  capitalists,  craftily  using  the  hatreds 
of  the  poor  to  forward  their  own  plots.  The  first  part  of  "  Les  Paysans  " 
(and  the  only  part  which  was  published  during  the  author's  life)  appeared 
under  a  title  taken  from  an  old  and  deeply  significant  proverb,  Qui  a  terre 
a  guerre,  — "Who  has  land  has  war." 

It  is  the  account  of  a  guerilla  war  conducted  by  a  whole  country-side 
against  one  great  land-owner, — a  war  in  which,  moreover,  the  lawless 
aggressions  of  the  peasantry  are  prompted,  supported,  and  directed  by  an 
amazing  alliance  between  the  richest,  most  unscrupulons,  and  most  power- 
ful of  the  neighboring  provincial  magnates,  who,  by  controlling,  through 
family  council,  the  local  administration,  are  in  a  position  to  paralyze  resist- 
ance to  their  conspiracy.  The  working  out  of  this  deep  plot  affords  the 
author  opportunity  for  the  introduction  of  a  whole  gallery  of  marvellous 
studies. 

It  is  perhaps  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  powerful  and  absorbing 
story  is  lifted  above  the  level  of  romance  by  the  unequalled  artistic  genius 
of  the  author,  and  that  it  is  at  times  almost  transformed  into  a  profound 
political  study  by  the  depth  and  acumen  of  his  suggestions  and  comments. 
Nor  should  it  be  requisite  to  point  out  analogies  with  territorial  conditions 
in  more  than  one  other  country,  which  lend  to  "  Les  Paysans  "  a  special 
interest  and  significance,  and  are  likely  to  prevent  it  from  becoming  obsolete 
for  a  long  time  to  come.  Of  the  translation  it  only  need  be  said  that  it  is 
as  good  as  Miss  Wormeley  has  accustomed  us  to  expect,  and  that  means 
the  best  rendering  of  French  into  English  that  has  ever  been  done.  — 
New  York  Tribune. 


Handsome  12mo  volume,  bound  in  half  Russia.  Price, 
$1.50. 

ROBERTS   BROTHERS,  Publishers, 

BOSTON,   MASS. 


i—Tr  t< 


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